NASA Europa Clipper mission heads to Jupiter's icy moon in search of livable conditions

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 carrying the Europa Clipper spacecraft for NASA.

Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY

The view form Table Beach across from Patrick Space Force Base of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of the NASA Europa Clipper from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 12:06 p.m. EST on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024.

TIM SHORTT / FLORIDA TODAY

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft sits atop SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket at Launch Pad 39A on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of launch to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. The spacecraft will complete nearly 50 flybys of Europa to determine if there are conditions suitable for life beyond Earth.

SpaceX, SpaceX

Technicians prepare to encapsulate NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy payload fairing in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. The payload fairing will protect the spacecraft during liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on its journey to explore Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. The spacecraft will complete nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, to determine if there are conditions suitable for life beyond Earth.

SpaceX

This illustrationdepicts NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft. With an internal global ocean twice the size of Earth's oceans combined, Jupiter's moon Europa may have the potential to harbor life. The Europa Clipper orbiter will swoop around Jupiter on an elliptical path, dipping close to the moon on each flyby to collect data. The mission will gather measurements of the internal ocean, map the surface geology and composition, and hunt for plumes of water vapor that may be venting from the icy crust.

JPL-Caltech, NASA

This artist's concept illustrates how NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will use radar to peer beneath Europa's ice crust to reveal the structure underneath. An instrument called the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) can penetrate beneath the surface layer, revealing potential pockets of water, cracks or other features not visible from the outside.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A view of Jupiter's moon Europa created from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990's.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute/ Via Reuters

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers and technicians work near the electronics vault (TOP CENTER R) of the Europa Clipper spacecraft inside a Spacecraft Assembly Facility clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on April 11, 2023 in Pasadena, Calif.

Mario Tama, Getty Images