NASA Jupiter Probe Sets Distance Record for Solar-Powered Spacecraft

A NASA spacecraft in the home stretch of its five-year journey to Jupiter has just become the farthest-flung solar-powered probe in history. On Wednesday (Jan. 13), NASA's Juno spacecraft zoomed past the previous record of 492 million miles (792 million kilometers) from the sun, which was held by the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta mission, NASA officials said. Juno is scheduled to enter orbit around Jupiter on July 4, and shortly thereafter begin mapping out the gas giant's powerf