October 14, 2024

— NASA's largest-ever interplanetary spacecraft is now on its way to our solar system's largest planet where it will study one of the oldest-known moons to begin answering one of humanity's most fundamental questions: Does life exist beyond Earth?

Europa Clipper lifted off atop an expendable SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Monday (Oct. 14), setting off on a six-year, 1.8-billion-mile (2.9-billion-km) journey to Jupiter. Once in orbit around the giant gas planet, the probe will make 49 flybys of the ice-covered Galilean satellite Europa to search for the ingredients of life — water, chemistry and energy — which scientists believe may exist underneath the moon's thick icy crust today.

"Europa is a fascinating destination," said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator, in a pre-launch briefing. "At NASA, we strive every day to answer fundamental questions about our solar system and our place in it, and Europa Clipper will help us answer these questions."

The spacecraft left the ground at 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon Heavy's second stage gave the 12,800-pound (5,800-kg) spacecraft its initial push away from Earth, separating from the probe about an hour and two minutes after liftoff.

NASA's Europa Clipper separates. Click to enlarge video in new pop-up window. (NASA)

During its first 20 minutes flying free, Europa Clipper oriented itself in relation to the Sun and began communicating with its ground stations on Earth, transmitting data about how it was functioning. Deployment of its two solar arrays — extending its span from about 10 feet (3 m) to just over 100 feet (30.5 meters) wide, about the size of a basketball court — is expected to be complete about two hours after it separated.

Clipper's cruise and commissioning

During the first four months of its cruise phase to Jupiter, Europa Clipper will head towards a rendezvous with Mars, where on March 1, 2025, the probe will use the red planet's gravity to accelerate onwards.

The spacecraft will do the same type of slingshot maneuver around Earth in early December 2026, before proceeding onto its main target.

Before Europa Clipper arrives at Jupiter, the mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will deploy the spacecraft's 28-foot (8.5-m) magnetometer boom and radar antennas; test the instruments and subsystems; and make sure the probe is ready to begin studying the Jovian moon.

"Europa Clipper is equipped with the most sophisticated and sensitive suite of instruments that NASA has ever flown to Jupiter," said Cynthia Phillips, JPL project staff scientist, in a pre-launch science briefing. "The imaging instruments use remote sensing to observe Europa's surface and in some cases, its subsurface, in a space environment using light in different wavelengths. The fields and particles instruments detect gas and dust particles, and they also sense fields like magnetic fields and gravity fields."

"Europa Clipper's cameras will be able to observe at 12 times better resolution [than NASA's previous Jupiter probe, Galileo], over a much larger portion of the surface. I just can't wait to see what we find," said Phillips, adding that the mission's narrow angle camera will be able to resolve objects as small as a car on the moon's surface.

Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter on April 11, 2030, after using another the planet's moons, Ganymede, to slow its approach.

Europa Clipper's mission at Jupiter includes 49 flybys of Europa dedicated to collecting science data, plus seven additional flybys of Ganymede and nine flybys of Jupiter's moon Callisto to help shape the spacecraft's trajectory.

Way of water

Telescopic observations of Europa, coupled with data collected by the Voyager and Galileo missions, have confirmed that the moon's surface is made mostly of water ice. Scientists believe that below the ice is global ocean holding about twice as much water as all of Earth's seas combined.

Europa Clipper will attempt to answer if the moon's ocean does indeed exist, if it contains the organic materials necessary for life to exist and if tidal heating, hydrothermal vents or other sources of energy are active under the ice. It is not a life detecting mission, but will return the information needed to design for future probes to seek out past or present organisms.

In addition to its nine state-of-the-art science instruments, Europa Clipper is also carrying a few payloads to symbolize the connection between Earth and Europa.

A metal plate helping to seal the spacecraft's instruments from radiation is inscribed on its exterior with "Water Words," a visual representation of recordings of the words for "water" in more than 100 languages. The interior side of the 7-by-11-inch (18-by-28-cm) plaque displays "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa" by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

The plate also serves as a mount for NASA's "Message in a Bottle," a microchip etched with 2.6 million names submitted by the public.