'Welcome to Jupiter!' NASA's Juno space probe arrives at giant planet

Jet Propulsion Lab, California (CNN)NASA says it has received a signal from 540 million miles across the solar system, confirming its Juno spacecraft has successfully started orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

"Welcome to Jupiter!" flashed on screens at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

The Juno team cheered and hugged.

"This is phenomenal," said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The probe had to conduct a tricky maneuver to slow down enough to allow it to be pulled into orbit: It fired its main engine for 35 minutes, effectively hitting the brakes to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second).

"NASA did it again," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.

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"We're there, we're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter."

"Through tones Juno sang to us and it was a song of perfection," said Rick Nybakken, Juno Project Manager, referring to the audio signal the probe sent to indicate it was in orbit.

The Juno team celebrates at Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Juno was launched nearly five years ago on a mission to study Jupiter's composition and evolution. It's the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter since Galileo. Galileo was deliberately crashed into Jupiter on September 21, 2003, to protect one of its discoveries -- a possible ocean beneath Jupiter's moon Europa.

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"Preliminary looks are that the spacecraft is performing well ," said Guy Beutelschies, Director of Interplanetary Missions at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the company that built the spacecraft.

Steve Levin, Juno Project Scientist, looked ahead to turning on the probe's instruments again, after they were turned off in preparation for the tricky orbit maneuver.

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"What I'm really looking forward to is getting up close and personal with Jupiter," he said.

Three Lego figurines are flying aboard the Juno spacecraft. They represent the Roman god Jupiter; his wife, Juno; and Galileo Galilei -- the scientist who discovered Jupiter's four largest moons on January 7, 1610.

Jupiter was 445 million miles (716 million kilometers) from Earth when Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5, 2011. But the probe traveled a total distance of 1,740 million miles (2,800 million kilometers) to reach Jupiter, making a flyby of Earth to help pick up speed.

Technicians use a crane to lower Juno onto a stand where the spacecraft was loaded with fuel for its mission.

Technicians test the three massive solar arrays that power the Juno spacecraft. In this photo taken on February 2, 2011, each solar array is unfurled at a Lockheed Martin Space Systems facility in Denver.

Photos: Juno, meet Jupiter

An Illustration depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entering Jupiter's orbit. Juno will study Jupiter from a polar orbit, coming about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) from the cloud tops of the gas giant.

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