LOS ANGELES ( TIP) A Nasa spacecraft bound for Jupiter will swing by Earth to get the boost it needs to arrive at the giant gas planet in 2016. Using Earth as a gravitational slingshot is a common trick since there isn’t a rocket that’s powerful enough to catapult a spacecraft directly to the outer solar system. Launched in 2011, the Juno spacecraft zipped past the orbit of Mars and fired its engines to put it on course for a momentum-gathering flyby of Earth. During the manoeuvre, Juno will briefly pass into Earth’s shadow and emerge over India‘s east coast. At closest approach, Juno will fly within 350 563 kilometres of the Earth’s surface, passing over the ocean off the coast of South Africa shortly before 12.30pm local time. The rendezvous was designed to bump Juno’s speed from 125,500 kmph relative to the sun to 140,000kmph enough power to cruise beyond the asteroid belt toward its destination.