An exceptionally heavy interplanetary probe is on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, using the gravity of Earth and Venus to propel it on its path toward the gas giant. Just weeks before its scheduled flyby of Venus, the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission went silent, threatening its ability to perform the planetary encounter.

Unable to communicate with the spacecraft, teams of engineers got to work on figuring out the problem under a tight schedule, hoping their efforts would reach JUICE as it cruises millions of miles away.

JUICE, or JUpiter ICy moons Explorer , is currently on its way to Venus to perform a gravity assist maneuver on August 31, following the resolution of a pesky software glitch that had weakened the spacecraft’s signal. Mission control managed to reestablish commu

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