The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) mission, which launched on April 14, 2023, from the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has had an antenna malfunction.

The agency took to Twitter to share updates. ESA’s Juice mission tweeted, “#ESAJuice deployment status update: our 16 m-long ice-penetrating RIME antenna is not yet fully deployed as planned. Work is ongoing to resolve an issue currently preventing it from being released from its mounting bracket”, through its official Twitter handle.

In a statement, the space agency said, “During the first week of commissioning, an issue arose with the 16-meter-long RIME antenna, which is preventing it from being released from its mounting bracket”.

“The work is ongoing to free the radar and teams at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, along with partners in science and industry, have lots of ideas up their sleeves”, the space agency added.

JUICE is the European Space Agency’s first mission to search for signs of alien life on Jupiter. It will reach Jupiter’s orbit in July 2031 which is around 628 million kilometres (390 million miles) from Earth.

When the probe arrives in 2031, it will have to carefully apply the brakes in order to enter Jupiter’s orbit.

JUICE will then zero in on Jupiter and its three ice, ocean-bearing moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

In a status update, ESA stated that the JUICE mission is performing excellently after the successful deployment and operation of its mission-critical solar arrays.

“Juice is otherwise performing excellently and with two months of planned commissioning, there is plenty of time to work on any issues. More updates when we have them. #StayTuned 📸RIME antenna awaiting deployment on 14 April 2023”, the ESA’s Juice mission added in another tweet.

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