Solar System

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Launches From Kennedy Space Center (Highlights)

Oct. 14, 2024

Highlights from the Oct. 14, 2024, launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will travel 1.8 billion miles to study Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa. The spacecraft lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT (9:06 a.m. PDT).

Europa Clipper is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying Europa, which likely has a salty ocean beneath its icy surface. The spacecraft is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment. The mission’s main goal is to determine whether Europa has the right conditions to support life.

Europa Clipper will arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and make 49 flybys of Europa during its prime mission, which concludes in 2034.

For more information on the mission go to: https://europa.nasa.gov/

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

Speakers:

Megan Cruz, commentator, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Derrol Nail, commentator, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Mission controller
Michael “Mic” Woltman, chief of Fleet Systems Integration, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Raquel Villanueva, commentator, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Megan Cruz
Live at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, a nearly 2 billion mile, 5½-year journey to Jupiter’s icy ocean moon.

Derrol Nail
And liftoff. Liftoff of Falcon Heavy with Europa Clipper. Unveiling the mysteries of an enormous ocean lurking beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Mission Controller
By booster separation confirmed.

Michael “Mic” Woltman
Fairing is separated and those will be recovered by SpaceX’s own recovery ship, Go Cosmos.

Derrol Nail
This is a big moment for the program for NASA, APL, and JPL. Let’s watch.

Mission Controller
Europa Clipper separation confirmed.

Derrol Nail
And there you go. NASA’s Europa Clipper probe embarking on a long-awaited mission to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. And what a sight.

Raquel Villanueva
And now they wait for acquisition of signal.

Derrol Nail
I believe we have it — right — there it is. Confirmation of signal from the spacecraft Europa Clipper.