NASA’s Europa Clipper will take off today. You can watch the launch live during a live stream on NASA’s website. the Europa Clipper mission is one of the most exciting of the year, with NASA planning to send the spacecraft all the way out to the Jovian system, where it will study Europa and the other Jovian moons—and probably even Jupiter itself—more in-depth.
The Jovian system has long been a popular point of study for astronomers, and the Europa Clipper has been years in the making. The spacecraft was initially set to launch last week, on October 10. However, Hurricane Milton’s arrival in Florida led to more delays.
Coverage for the launch began today at 11 a.m. ET and the launch is currently set for 12:06 p.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The liftoff will see the Europa Clipper mission head into space aboard a SpaceX Falce Heavy rocket. If the launch doesn’t go as intended today, then the mission has several other opportunities to launch before November 6, when the most recent launch window closes.
The Clipper will carry a total of nine different instruments to the Jovian system. These instruments are dedicated to studying the ice-covered ocean world, Europa, which some believe could hold signs of life beneath its surface. The main point of the mission is to discover if Europa is indeed habitable as many believe.
Alongside these instruments, the Europa Clipper mission will also carry a special message from humanity onboard. The message is a poem written by Ada Limón, and it also has 2.6 million names etched into the metal piece that caries the message.
The mission initially began in 2013 as a concept. That concept has ballooned out entirely to a complete mission costing roughly $5.2 billion to pull off. But, once the Europa Clipper spacecraft reaches the Jovian system, it will hopefully help teach us more about Europa than ever before. After the Europa Clipper mission launches, the spacecraft will travel 1.8 million miles to Jupiter.
It isn’t expected to arrive until April of 2023 and will work alongside the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which the European Space Agency (ESA) launched back in April of 2023.
