JUNO is a NASA mission to the planet Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2011. (www.nasa.gov). It will take 5 years to reach Jupiter, arriving in July 2016. It will orbit Jupiter 33 times. The purpose of the mission is to explore the structure and atmosphere of Jupiter. The main purpose of this mission is to understand how the planet Jupiter originated and thus help us understand the evolution of gas giants. This knowledge will also be reflected in our understanding of the origins of the Universe. The spacecraft will be placed in a polar orbit to study the planet's composition, gravitational field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere. Juno will also look to see if the planet has a rocky core and investigate how much water is in the planet's atmosphere. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is managing the Juno mission for Dr. Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The spacecraft is built by Lockheed Martin of Denver. Scientists from 5 countries ha...