NASA Europa Clipper Spacecraft: Launch Preparations | Kennedy Space Center

NASA Europa Clipper Spacecraft: Launch Preparations | Kennedy Space Center

Technicians encapsulated NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside payload fairings on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

This image shows technicians working to complete operations prior to propellant load for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2024.

Europa Clipper's Trajectory to Jupiter

Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean World Poster

One last look at NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft as the payload fairings close (encapsulation) before it is placed on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The spacecraft will be on a nearly 6-year journey to investigate if there are habitable conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than October 10, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida.🚀

Europa Clipper has nine dedicated science instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer, and an ice-penetrating radar. These instruments will study Europa’s icy shell, the ocean beneath, and the composition of the gases in the moon’s atmosphere and surface geology, and provide insights into the moon’s potential habitability. The spacecraft also will carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and any possible eruptions of water vapor. Strong evidence shows the ocean beneath Europa’s crust is twice the volume of all the Earth’s oceans combined.

Europa Clipper is expected to reach the Jupiter system in April 2030, and it will accomplish a few milestones along the way, including a Mars flyby in February 2025 that will help propel the spacecraft toward Jupiter’s moon through a Mars-Earth gravity assist trajectory.

For more information on the mission, visit: https://europa.nasa.gov/

'Dreaming of Europa' Posters and Wallpaper (Phone and Desktop)

Full-size downloads: https://go.nasa.gov/3ZIDxgu

Image Credit: NASA / Kim Shiflett / Ben Smegelsky / SpaceX

Release Dates: Sept. 11-Oct. 2, 2024

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