A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a 5 billion dollar Europa Clipper toward Jupiter from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida this evening.
Live coverage from the launch has captivated rocket and space enthusiasts online.
Europa Clipper, one of NASA’s large strategic science projects (also known as flagship missions), is the largest planetary science mission ever created by NASA and the first to conduct a thorough exploration of Europa and its potential habitability.
The Europa Clipper was originally intended to launch on October 10, 2024, at the beginning of its launch window. However, due to Hurricane Milton’s approach and eventual landfall on Florida’s west coast, the mission’s launch was postponed indefinitely until the storm safely passed past the Kennedy Space Centre and the facility was deemed safe from significant damage.
Europa Clipper is one of the most anticipated missions of the twenty-first century, and it can establish the habitability of another planet in our solar system.
Europa Clipper’s journey to Jupiter will last 5.5 years and cover 2.9 billion km, including two gravity-assist flybys of Mars and Earth in February 2025 and December 2026, respectively. Each gravity assist will allow Europa Clipper to change its orbit around the Sun, with the last Earth flyby and subsequent modest course correction manoeuvres putting the spacecraft’s route into alignment with Jupiter. Europa Clipper is planned to arrive at the planet in April 2030, where it will undertake an insertion burn to enter Jupiter’s sphere of influence.
