At 0547 GMT on 19 October, the NASA probe, Juno, entered a “safe mode” 13 hours before it reached “perijove”, the low point of its orbit, around the planet Jupiter. Operators have reported that the spacecraft behaved as expected when entering safe mode and during the restart afterwards, so the spacecraft is safe. Scientists however, will be disappointed to hear that due to the safe mode activation all the scientific sensors were deactivated, meaning that no data was collected during the Jupiter fly-by.
Juno has previously been reported (14 October) to have had trouble with its fuel pressurisation system. This fault had required the planned Period Reduction Manoeuvre (PRM) to be postponed until 11 December when Juno next approaches perijove. The Juno team do not think there is a connection between the fuel pressurisation issue and the safe mode activation.
Update on 27 October 2016: Juno exited safe mode on 24 October after being commanded to do so.
