NASA's Europa Clipper probe atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off at 1606 UTC Monday(Oct. 14) from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The probe is embarking on an astrobiology mission to Jupiter ocean moon, Europa(the probe's namesake).
"Liftoff of Falcon Heavy with Europa Clipper, unveiling the mysteries of an enormous ocean lurking beneath the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa," NASA launch commentator Derrol Nail said during liftoff Monday.
At about 3 minutes after liftoff, Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters detached from the rocket's central core, which continued skyward another minute until separation from the second stage.
Unlike during Psyche mission, the two Falcon Heavy side boosters used in today's launch will be expended, as fuel was used up in pushing Europa Clipper skywards. The probe is NASA's biggest spacecraft for a planetary mission, weighing about 6,000 kilograms at liftoff and, with its solar panels extended, will measure about 30 meters long -- bigger than a basketball court.
"This was the sixth and final flight for the two side-boosters, which, one year ago today supported @NASA’s Psyche and previous missions USSF-44, USSF-52, USSF-67, and Hughes JUPITER 3," SpaceX wrote on X Monday.
Falcon Heavy's second stage deployed Europa Clipper on an interplanetary trajectory about an hour after liftoff. Communication with the probe was established few minutes later by the team, eliciting a round of cheers and applause in mission control.
"The spacecraft will now travel past Mars, using the planet’s gravity to gain the velocity needed to reach Jupiter’s moon Europa by 2030," SpaceX explained in a post X, following today's launch.
Europa Clipper is expected to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030, where it will perform an insertion burn lasting six to eight hours and expelling 50% to 60% of its 2,722 kilograms of propellant. This will put it into an elliptical orbit around the gas giant. It will then begin a lengthy series of maneuvers to align its trajectory so that the probe can study Jupiter moon up close over 45 or so flybys. (Clipper will remain in orbit around Jupiter; orbiting Europa would have been too risky for the mission, given the moon's intense radiation environment.)
The first flyby won’t occur until spring 2031. NASA will use this first pass to make further corrections to Clipper’s course in preparation for the probe’s first science campaign. Over dozens of flybys beginning in May 2031, the probe will focus its sensor array on Jupiter moon’s anti-Jovian side (the hemisphere facing away from Jupiter), flying as close as 25 kilometers above the surface. A second science campaign will begin two years later, in May, 2033, on Europa’s Jupiter-facing hemisphere.
Europa, which is the target of NASA's ambitious mission is one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. It is covered in a frozen outer crust under which scientists think a vast ocean of salty liquid water sloshes; and is widely considered one of the solar system's best bets to harbor alien life. NASA scientists however clarified that the probe won’t be looking for life on Europa, but only for the potential that the environment beneath its surface can support life.
"If there is life on Europa in this habitable environment that we're exploring, it will be underneath the ocean, so we wouldn't be able to see it," Bonnie Buratti, Europa Clipper deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said during a press briefing in September. "We're looking for chemicals on the surface, organic chemicals that are the precursors to life. There are dream things we could observe. like DNA or RNA, but we don't expect to see those. So, [the mission] really is just looking for a habitable environment and evidence for the ingredients of life, not life itself."
The probe will also characterize Europa's ice shell in detail. This work could identify good spots at which a life-hunting lander -- a future mission that Congress has ordered NASA to develop -- could touch down and operate. The probe will collect data using a suite of nine science instruments, including visible-light and thermal cameras, several spectrometers and gear that will characterize Europa's magnetic environment. Together, this hardware will help mission scientists address three main objectives, as NASA's Europa Clipper page states.
The spacecraft is also carrying some culture from Earth to the Jupiter system -- "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa," written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The poem is engraved, in her own handwriting, on a metal plate that serves as a seal for the probe's "vault," which helps protect its instruments and key electronics against radiation. The poem is part of NASA's "Message in a Bottle" outreach campaign, which also features a dime-sized chip engraved with the names of 2.6 million people who wanted a piece of themselves to fly to the Jupiter moon.
Europa Clipper’s mission is set to end in September 2034, when NASA plans to crash the spacecraft into Ganymede, another of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, to make sure they don't contaminate the potentially life-hosting Europa with microbes from Earth. Ganymede is viewed as a relatively poor bet to host life.
