[2] In April 2011, European Space Agency (ESA) stated that it seemed unlikely that a joint US–European mission will happen in the early 2020s given NASA's budget, so ESA continued with its initiative, called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) that will be based on the JGO design.

Selection of JUICE for the L1 launch slot of ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme was announced on 2 May 2012.

[9] The most distinctive feature of the EJSM/Laplace-study, was the proposed collaboration with multiple orbiters and landers: The baseline EJSM architecture consisted of JEO and JGO, which were proposed to be launched in 2020 and explore the Jupiter System before settling into orbit around Europa and Ganymede, respectively.

The JEO and JGO were separate and independent spacecraft developed, launched and operated by their respective organizations to work together.

[10] The goal was to determine whether the Jupiter system harbors habitable environments, while focusing on Europa and Ganymede.