NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft Separates from SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket

NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft Separates from SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft has separated from SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket after a successful launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, October 14, 2024. Europa Clipper is on its way to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, to study its icy crust and the salty ocean below. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is expected to reach Europa in 2030 and perform nearly 50 flybys of the Moon.

Beyond Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa is considered one of the solar system’s most promising potentially habitable environments. After an approximately 1.8-billion-mile journey, Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030, where the spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Europa to determine whether the icy world could have conditions suitable for life.

Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It carries a suite of nine instruments along with a gravity experiment that will investigate an ocean beneath Europa’s surface, which scientists believe contains twice as much liquid water as Earth’s oceans.

Europa Clipper's science instruments include 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.

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

Video Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)

Duration: 38 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 14, 2024

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