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WASHINGTON (AFP): NASA Friday launched the billion-dollar solar-powered spacecraft Juno on a five-year journey to Jupiter aiming to discover what makes up the Solar System’s biggest planet.

The unmanned satellite observatory was propelledinto space aboard a 60-metre tall Atlas V rocket, blasting off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:25 pm (1625 GMT).

“Ignition and liftoff on the Atlas V with Juno on a trek to Jupiter, a planetary piece of the puzzle on the beginning of our Solar System,” said a NASA television commentator.

Some 53 minutes later Juno separated from its carrier rocket, heading off solo into space.

The launch of Juno showed “NASA is still open for business and leading the world in spaceexploration,” said NASA chief Charles Bolden, just over two weeks after the last ever shuttle flight landed back on Earth and the programme was mothballed.

“The largest planet in our neighbourhood is about to reveal its secrets, and everything Juno finds will help us understand more about the origins and evolution of our solar system. This is exciting stuff,” Bolden wrote on the NASA website.

Once it arrives in July 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the poles of the gas giant, which has more than twice the mass of all planets in the Solar System combined and is believed to be the first planet that took shape around the Sun.

Named after the wife of the Roman god Jupiter, the USD 1.1 billion spacecraft is NASA's first mission there since it launched Galileo in 1989, and it aims for 30 orbits over a period of one year.

Juno will get closer to Jupiter than any other NASA spacecraft and will be the first to undertake a polar orbit of the planet, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator and scientist at theSouthwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

“One of the primary goals of Juno.... is (probing) the origin of Jupiter and the origin of our Solar System,” Bolton said Friday just before the launch.

“Juno is set up to learn about that early part of the Solar System and learn how Jupiter formed, and by measuring the ingredients we are really looking for the recipe of planet formation.”

NASA’s Galileo, an orbiter and probe that launched 22 years ago, entered the planet's orbit in 1995 and plunged into Jupiter in 2003, ending its life.

Other NASA spacecraft – including Voyager 1 and 2, Ulysses and New Horizons – have done flybys of the fifth planet from the Sun.

NASA's Juno space probe Wednesday moved on to the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The solar-powered, Jupiter-bound spacecraft was secured into place on top of its rocket for an August launch preparation.

Juno will arrive at Jupiter in July 2016 and orbit its poles 33 times to learn more about the gas giant's interior, atmosphere and aurora, a release by the space agency said.

"We're about to start our journey to Jupiter to unlock the secrets of the early solar system. After eight years of development, the spacecraft is ready for its important mission," Scott Bolton, the mission's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, was quoted as saying in the news release.

Juno is currently installed on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551- the most powerful Atlas rocket ever made.

NASA has already begun a final flurry of checks and tests along with an on-pad functional test. The test is designed to confirm that the spacecraft is healthy after the fueling, encapsulation and transport operations.

The launch period for Juno opens Aug 5, 2011, and extends through Aug 26. For an Aug 5 liftoff, the launch window opens at 11:34 a.m. EDT and remains open through 12:43 EDT, according to the report.

Key things to know about Juno

Spacecraft scheduled to launch between Aug. 5 and Aug. 26, 2011
Five-year cruise to Jupiter, arriving July 2016
Spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for about one year (33 orbits)
Mission ends with de-orbit into Jupiter

Juno will improve our understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.

Specifically, Juno will…

Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.