Jupiter-circling spacecraft stuck making long laps

NASA’s Jupiter-circling spacecraft is stuck making long laps around the gas giant because of sticky valves.

It takes Juno 53 days to fly around the solar system’s biggest planet. That’s almost four times longer than the intended 14-day orbit. Only the second craft to orbit Jupiter, it has been circling the planet since July.

After repeated delays, NASA last week scrapped an engine firing that would have shortened the orbit, a maneuver that officials said is too risky.

NASA said the science won’t be affected, saying that stunning pictures of Jupiter, which was launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral, will keep coming. But it will take more time to gather the data, given Juno’s longer loops. The mission will have to be extended at tens of millions of extra dollars if scientists are to collect everything under the original plan. It’s already a billion-dollar mission.

Scientists also said Juno will spend less time in Jupiter’s radiation belts.