ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is on an epic eight-year journey to Jupiter. It left Earth in April 2023 and is due to arrive at the gas giant in 2031.

2025 has been another big year for Juice. It made its closest approach to the Sun and flew close by Venus for a gravity boost to help it on its way. This second episode of ‘The journey of Juice’ takes us on a journey of our own, discovering what Juice – and the humans behind it – have experienced this year.

In a clean room at ESA’s technical centre, thermal engineer Romain Peyrou-Lauge shows us the technologies that protect Juice from the intense heat of the Sun during this period.

In Uppsala, Sweden, scientists get together for a ‘science working team’ meeting to discuss the scientific aspects of the mission. Juice Project Scientist Olivier Witasse talks about how important it is to continue working as a team to prepare for Juice’s precious time spent collecting data at Jupiter.

The video culminates with operations engineer Marc Costa taking us to the Cebreros station in Madrid for the Venus flyby. There we meet deputy station manager Jorge Fauste, Juice intern Charlotte Bergot and Juice Mission Manager Nicolas Altobelli.

This series follows on from ‘The making of Juice’ series, which covered the planning, testing and launch of this once-in-a-generation mission.