Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter

Phew, what a couple of whirlwind hours those have been!

Thanks for joining us as we followed the launch of the Jupiter moons mission, one of the European Space Agency's most ambitious ever.

"Juice is coming, Jupiter! Get ready for it," announced Andrea Accomazzo, the operations director of ESA's mission control in Germany, once the satellite was sent skyward on an Ariane-5 rocket.

"The Juice is loose!" declared our science correspondent Jonathan Amos, with today's blast off making up for the disappointment of yesterday's postponement.

But there's still a long way to go. It will take eight years for the satellite to reach the Jupiter system, travelling four billion miles from Earth.

As our science editor Rebecca Morelle explained, today's launch is the halfway point of the mission.

But the ESA will be breathing a sigh of relief to see lift-off, and we look forward to updating you on the satellite's arrival (hopefully) in 2031.

Today's coverage was brought to you by Marita Moloney and myself, as well as our colleagues Thomas Mackintosh, Aoife Walsh, Ece Goksedef and Gem O'Reilly.

Shall we see you all again in eight years?

Well, after a one-day delay due to bad weather, the European Space Agency successfully launched its mission to see if the moons of Jupiter can support alien life.

Here are some more images of the day as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) took off from the European spaceport in French Guiana.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter

I've been speaking with British meteorologist Rebecca Smith, who watched the historic launch from the beaches of Kourou.

The 24-year-old filmed the moment Juice left Earth and started its long, long journey to Jupiter.

You can hear crowds in awe as the rocket hurtles above them into outer space.

Here is how the Ariane 5 rocket started its journey to Jupiter:

Image source, ESA

Image source, ESA

Image source, ESA

Image source, ESA

Image source, Getty Images

It was "a beautiful launch", an astronomer tells the BBC.

Dr Jenifer Millard adds: "Hopefully things continue going smoothly."

She continues by describing what the mission is all about - studying the moons of Jupiter and the planet itself.

Dr Millard pays tribute to all those who've been involved in the project - which has been going on for around five years.

Speaking earlier on BBC News, our science editor Rebecca Morelle explained why although the Juice has left Earth - there is still a long way to go.

It is expected in the Jupiter system in eight years from now.

The European Space Agency watched with excitement as other stages of the rocket successfully detached.

It took around 30 minutes for the parts to separate and those watching celebrated as the first section of the mission was completed.

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

Bingo! The small explosive bolts restraining the solar panels have been firing.

The arrays are coming out, and data from Juice is telling controllers that the solar cells are indeed generating "juice".

You need big, big solar arrays at Jupiter because it receives only a fraction of the light that falls on Earth. Juice has solar wings with an area of 90 square metres.

Put simply: We have a mission. We have power and we're on our way to Jupiter.

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

For a long time, Mars has been considered by scientists to be the most likely candidate to host extra-terrestrial life, if not today then sometime in its distant past.

But, for astrobiologists - scientists who study the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe - the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and also Saturn are really starting to pique their interest and could feature the kind of volcanic vent systems on ocean floors that some scientists think could have been the origin of life on Earth.

"If I were a betting man, I'd probably put my money on Europa having life that is alive, that exists today," says Prof Lewis Dartnell, an astrobiologist at the University of Westminster.

“The chances of that are much higher than finding extant (living) life on Mars today."

Rebecca Morelle
Science editor

Getting to the Jupiter system will be hard enough, but operating a spacecraft once there will be even more of a challenge.

The environment in this part of the outer solar system is incredibly hostile.

For a start, the radiation there will be intense, which is bad news for the electronics on the spacecraft.

So key hardware has been heavily shielded in a lead-lined compartment.

Sunlight is another problem too - at Jupiter it’s 25 times weaker than on Earth - so the spacecraft has been built with massive solar arrays to soak up as much of it as it can.

Then there’s the temperature - the spacecraft will swing between being incredibly hot on its journey, to very, very cold when it is studying the moons.

So it’s been constructed with multi-layered insulation to cope with both extremes.

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

The chit-chat has begun, Juice has phoned home.

Controllers in Darmstadt in Germany are talking to the spacecraft. We had to wait a while for acquisition of signal, but it came… eventually.

Next milestone is to open the huge solar arrays on the spacecraft.

As the separation successfully completed 26 minutes after the launch, there was joy, applause, relief and lots of hugs in the Kourou station.

Image source, ESA

Image source, ESA

Image source, ESA

The rocket carrying the European Space Agency's Juice mission blasted off from its launchpad in Kourou about 30 minutes ago.

The probe will send a satellite on an eight-year journey to reach Jupiter's icy moons.

If you missed the launch, don't worry - you can watch it here:

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

It's done. Confirmed that Juice has been delivered on to its targeted path. We wait for the spacecraft to call home.

Image source, ESA

The separation process is now complete. The European Space Agency predicted this part of the launch to take roughly 26 minutes.

We've just gone through several key stages as parts of the Ariane 5 rocket are jettisoned and the Juice mission gets under way.

Let's now take a brief look at what those stages were:

Ariane 5 started off with two solid fuelboosters on its sides. These were first to detach, soon after lift off.

The Juice probe itself was encapsulated in the cone at the top of the rocket, known as the fairing. The cone has split in two and also separated off.

The core stage contained tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, giving it lots of energy for the main propulsion phase.

The upper stage is responsible for providing additional control during take off and the separation of the payload.

The solid rocket boosters - located along the sides of the Ariane 5 rocket - have now detached.

These do the heavy lifting to get the spacecraft off the ground, providing over 1,000 tonnes of thrust - some 90% of the total thrust at lift off, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

It says the Ariane 5 solid propellant boosters are the largest solid rocket boosters ever produced in Europe.

This moment marks the beginning of the rocket's separation process. According to ESA's predictions, 26 minutes after lift off full separation will have taken place.

I never tire of seeing Ariane 5 leave Earthpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 14 April 2023

13:32 BST 14 April 2023

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

And away she goes!

I never tire of seeing an Ariane 5 leave Earth.

The blinding light. The violent exhaust plume. The ear-splitting noise.

For just a minute, the usual cacophony that surrounds this equatorial spaceport - from chirping insects, croaking frogs and tweeting birds - will have been silenced.

The rocket now needs to keep its side of the bargain, to deliver the precious Juice payload on to just the right trajectory.

Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter

British meteorologist Rebecca Smith was one of many sat on the packed beaches of Kourou watching the Juice mission take off.

"Wow, wow, wow," she told me.

"There was a big cheer amongst me and my friends once that seven minute mark passed.

"It was unreal. It was a shame it was so cloudy, but we got to see a little.

"The noise, the mechanical thunder, just so cool."

Image source, ESA

There we go: Juice's long, long journey to Jupiter begins!

After much anticipation we saw the thrusters burn up and propel the rocket away from Earth.

I'm sure you could hear operation control countdown from ten, in French, followed by the roar of the engines.

Stay with us as we follow Juice's journey into space.

Here's a look at what the rocket will be doing over the next next hour and a bit.

The solid rocket fuel boosters - located along the sides of the rocket - will do the heavy lifting to get the spacecraft off the ground.

In the first few minutes of the flight, these will detach, marking the start of the separation process.

During the next half hour, other stages of the rocket will also detach, with full separation expected to have taken place by 26 minutes into the flight.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will then assume control of Juice, it predicts the earliest time the team on the ground will have a signal from the satellite is roughly 32 minutes after lift off.

The satellite's solar arrays will then be deployed, roughly 100 minutes after lift off from the spaceport in Kourou.

ESA says the subsequent deployment of antennas, probes and magnetometer boom will start 16 hours after lift off and will take up to 17 days to complete.