Nightly News   |  August 05, 2011

NASA launches Juno spacecraft

The unmanned Juno spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Friday on its way to Jupiter. Lester Holt reports.

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LESTER HOLT, anchor: The space shuttle program may be over, but NASA is still sending rockets into the final frontier. The unmanned Juno spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force station today on its way to Jupiter . It will be a long trip, 400 million miles, and Juno is expected to settle into Jupiter 's orbit in July 2016 on a mission to study the huge planet structure, magnetic field and atmosphere.