After years of anticipation and hurdles overcome, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is set to launch on Monday at 12:06 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, CNN reports.
The spacecraft, designed to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, will be carried aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The event will be streamed live on NASA’s website, with coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Weather conditions are currently 95% favorable for liftoff, according to Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer at the 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force. If launch is delayed, there are backup opportunities available until November 6.
Europa Clipper is poised to be NASA’s first mission dedicated to the study of an ice-covered ocean world within our solar system. The mission’s primary goal is to determine whether Europa could potentially harbor life as we know it.
Clipper will carry nine instruments and a gravity experiment to investigate the vast ocean thought to lie beneath Europa’s thick ice shell. This ocean is believed to contain twice the amount of water found in all of Earth’s oceans combined. The spacecraft also carries more than 2.6 million names submitted by people from around the world and a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.
The $5.2 billion mission, which began as a concept in 2013, has faced several challenges throughout its development. Notably, engineers discovered in May that components of the spacecraft might not be able to withstand Jupiter’s intense radiation environment. However, the team successfully completed the necessary testing and received approval to proceed with the launch in September, preventing a 13-month delay and without impacting the mission plan, goals, or trajectory.
After launch, the spacecraft will embark on a 1.8 billion mile journey, estimated to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. Along the way, it will use flybys of Mars and Earth to gain momentum and conserve fuel.
Europa Clipper will work in conjunction with the European Space Agency’s Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) spacecraft, which launched in April 2023 and is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July 2031.
The Clipper, the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, spans 100 feet across, boasting massive solar arrays to power its instruments in the distant reaches of the solar system.
Upon reaching Jupiter, the spacecraft will conduct 49 flybys of Europa, meticulously gathering data to analyze the moon’s potential for life. While Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment posed a significant challenge, engineers devised a strategy to mitigate its effects.
Each flyby, planned every two to three weeks, will expose the spacecraft to the intense radiation for less than a day, allowing its transistors to recover during the intervals between encounters.
