Juno spacecraft recovering its memory after mind-blowing Jupiter flyby, NASA says

NASA's Juno spacecraft is recovering its memory after a download disruption following its December flyby of Jupiter.

Juno spacecraft recovering its memory after mind-blowing Jupiter flyby, NASA says
NASA's Juno spacecraft made its 47th flyby of Jupiter in December. It was mind-blowing as in, the probe lost its memory. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA's Juno probe is continuing to recover its memory at Jupiter after a data disruption interrupted communications between the spacecraft and its operators on Earth following a flyby of the giant planet in December. 

The Juno spacecraft's latest flyby of Jupiter, its 47th close pass of the planet, was completed on Dec. 14. But as its operators at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were receiving science data from the flyby they found they could no longer directly access the spacecraft's memory.

The team successfully rebooted Juno's computer and on Dec. 17 they placed the spacecraft into "safe mode" with only essential systems operating as a precaution. As of a Dec. 22 NASA update(opens in new tab), steps taken by the team to recover Juno's science data had been proceeding positively. Juno's operators are now successfully downlinking the flyby data.