A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday morning, carrying a NASA probe headed for Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. The Europa Clipper is set to embark on a 1.8-billion mile journey lasting approximately 5½ years to explore the moon and investigate the potential building blocks of life.
Jordan Evans, the project manager for Europa Clipper at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted that the mission had officially mitigated a significant amount of risk following a smooth launch. The rocket lifted off at 9:06 a.m. Pacific time, and the initial phases of the flight proceeded as planned. The side boosters separated from the main rocket just over three minutes into the ascent, followed by the main booster that fell back to Earth shortly thereafter.
Approximately 4½ minutes after launch, the fairing that protected the spacecraft was released. After an eight-minute initial burn, Europa Clipper achieved a “coasting orbit” around the Earth before a second, shorter engine burn set it on a trajectory to escape Earth’s gravitational influence.
Cheers erupted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the spacecraft separated from the rocket about an hour post-launch. Initially resembling a cube with its solar panels still folded, the spacecraft quickly demonstrated operational capability when direct communication was established shortly thereafter.
Clipper will not take a straight path to Europa; instead, it will execute a gravity assist maneuver around Mars early next year and then make a return pass around Earth in late 2026 before heading toward Jupiter. The craft is expected to arrive at its destination in 2030 and conduct scientific research for over four years. As a precaution against contamination, the probe will end its mission by crashing into one of Jupiter’s rocky moons.
Originally slated for launch on Thursday, the mission was delayed while Clipper remained in SpaceX’s hangar during Hurricane Milton. Monday’s launch was met with clear skies over Florida’s space coast.
For decades, scientists have called for a mission to Europa, particularly after NASA’s Galileo probe suggested the presence of a global ocean beneath its surface, potentially warmed by tidal heating from Jupiter’s powerful gravitational forces. This environment, containing water, heat, and possibly organic materials, could make Europa a viable location for the search for extraterrestrial life.
Throughout its orbit of Jupiter, Clipper will make numerous flybys of Europa, using its sophisticated scientific instruments to study the moon’s subsurface ocean and search for organic compounds that may indicate life.
The Europa Clipper mission, costing $5 billion, was designed by NASA’s JPL and is the largest planetary probe the agency has produced to date. SpaceX utilized its Falcon Heavy rocket, which features additional boosters, to facilitate the launch.
Unlike its usual practice of recovering boosters, SpaceX allowed them to fall into the ocean this time, dedicating all propellant to ensure Clipper escaped Earth’s gravity. The protective fairings for the spacecraft, however, will be retrieved.
Matthew Shindell, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, highlighted the significance of newer heavy-lift rockets in enabling such ambitious missions, noting that similar missions would have been unfeasible a decade ago.