Beyond Earth: The Launch of NASA's Europa Clipper

In this week's newsletter, we take a deep dive into NASA's Europa Clipper mission, targeted to launch Thursday, Oct. 10. Europa Clipper, the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission, will perform dozens of close flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements that will help scientists better understand the potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet. There is strong evidence Jupiter's moon Europa has a saltwater ocean that may be one of the best places to look for environments where life could exist beyond Earth. Read on for ways to participate, where to watch launch coverage, and explore mission details.

NASA'S EUROPA CLIPPER

Beyond Earth

On Thursday, Oct. 10, at 12:31 p.m. EDT, the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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, the 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 nine instruments and 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.

Live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities will begin streaming on Tuesday, Oct. 8 on NASA+.

MISSION COVERAGE

NASA'S EUROPA CLIPPER

Mission Updates

The official blog for NASA's Europa Clipper mission will keep you up-to-date on pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activities—and beyond.

NASA's EUROPA CLIPPER

At the Launch Site

View and download behind-the-scenes imagery from NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

VIEW

NASA'S EUROPA CLIPPER

Join the Celebration

A style challenge, a kids art challenge, and a watch party are just some of the ways you can participate in the excitement of NASA's historic Europa Clipper mission.

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE

NASA'S EUROPA CLIPPER

NASA en español

¡Únase a nosotros para ver el lanzamiento de Europa Clipper en vivo! Los expertos de la NASA lo llevarán en un viaje para explorar los secretos de Europa, una de las lunas más fascinantes de Júpiter.

APRENDE MÁS

Discover More

There's a legacy of NASA spacecraft carrying inspirational messages from Earth, from the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record to engravings carried aboard NASA's Mars rovers. Now, as NASA sends a new mission from one ocean world to another, the Europa Clipper spacecraft continues this tradition with a vault plate inscribed with an original poem written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

The Europa Clipper is a robotic solar-powered spacecraft built to conduct the first detailed investigations of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. With its solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper spans more than 100 feet—about the length of a basketball court! The main body of the spacecraft consists of its avionics vault, radiofrequency module, and propulsion module. At launch, the spacecraft will weigh approximately 13,000 pounds. Almost half of the weight—nearly 6,000 pounds—will be propellant.

Go behind the scenes with some of the engineers contributing to the mission in our new video series, Behind the Spacecraft: Europa Clipper.

In the latest episode of NASA's Curious Universe podcast, planetary scientist Lynnae Quick-Henderson explains how the Europa Clipper spacecraft will search Europa for the building blocks of life. This episode is also available in Spanish at Universo curioso de la NASA.

Do You Know?

When Galileo Galilei discovered Europa and Jupiter’s three other large moons – Io, Ganymede, and Callisto – it showed Earth was not the center of all motion in the universe and profoundly changed our view of the cosmos. Since Galileo’s discovery, six robotic spacecraft have explored Europa, and scientists do regular observations of the moon with Hubble Space Telescope.

Which spacecraft first explored Jupiter’s moon Europa?

A. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11

B. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2

C. Galileo

Find out the answer in next week's edition of the NASA newsletter 🤓

Last week we asked who shared the record for flying on the most orbital launches from Earth, Franklin Chang-Diaz. The answer? Jerry L. Ross! Ross and Franklin Chang-Díaz are both former NASA astronauts who each flew on seven Space Shuttle missions, tying the record for the most spaceflights by an astronaut.

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