The Juno mission to Jupiter launch campaign and early cruise report

Juno, NASA´s second New Frontiers Mission, is a Jupiter polar orbiter carrying a nine-instrument payload designed to complete an in-depth study of Jupiter´s atmospheric composition and structure, magnetic and gravity fields, and the polar magnetosphere. Juno was launched from CCAFS (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station) on August 5, 2011 and is enroute to Jupiter arriving in July 2016 for a 1-year science mission. This paper provides a description of Juno´s launch campaign (including a description of technical challenges that the team dealt with), a report on early cruise operations and a short discussion of some key lessons learned from Juno´s development. It is a follow-on paper to two previous Juno papers listed in the References section.