After years of traveling in deep space, NASA's Juno probe finally reached Jupiter's orbit, sending magnificent images of unprecedented views of its atmosphere. However, mission scientists say that Juno's primary engine is now experiencing some technical problems.

Like Us on Facebook

Last week, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission scientists executed commands to prepare for a crucial engine burn that will place Juno in its final orbit around Jupiter. However, the data that they received revealed that a pair of helium check valves is apparently not working properly.

According to Juno's project manager, Rick Nybakken, these valves should only take a few seconds to open. However, it took several minutes. The Juno team is now attempting to resolve this issue before moving forward with a crucial main engine burn.

This important spacecraft maneuver was originally scheduled for October 19, Wednesday. However, the team is still investigating the engine's performance. The decision to carry out this maneuver with this engine burn will now be moved to December 11, which is the date of Juno's next close range flyby of Jupiter.

Mission scientists have said that the overall mission will not suffer from this engine anomaly and shift in schedule. They also say that by December, Juno's suite of onboard scientific instruments will be ready to collect data as it zips by its closest approach yet to Jupiter.

When Juno gets closer in orbit, mission scientists will no longer need to execute engine burns like this anymore since smaller thrusts will do the work. However, if Juno still cannot carry out this crucial burn come December, scientists will not be able to capture closer images of Jupiter and collect other data.