NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to lift off on Monday: SpaceX

After being stalled due to hurricane Milton, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission aims to fly to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in search of life on Monday, SpaceX has said.

Europa Clipper will launch its first mission aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 12:05 p.m. ET. (9:35 pm IST) . It was earlier scheduled to fly on October 10.

“The spacecraft will help scientists determine if Europa’s salty ocean harbours the ingredients for life,” SpaceX said.

The Elon Musk-led company said it is the sixth and final flight for the first stage side boosters supporting this mission. The boosters previously assisted in the launch of USSF-44, USSF-67, USSF-52, Hughes JUPITER 3, and NASA’s Psyche mission.

The $5 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft is the largest NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. Its solar arrays span more than 30 metres when deployed and weigh nearly 6,000 kilograms at launch.

The spacecraft is powered by 24 engines, and its propulsion module is an aluminium cylinder 3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide.

Europa Clipper is slated to travel 2.6 billion kilometres to reach the Jupiter system, where it will arrive in 2030. During the journey, it will make a flyby of Mars in February 2025, and then of Earth in December 2026.

It is also expected to make nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, where it will survey conditions suitable to support life. It

The findings will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

According to NASA scientists, Europa is one of the most promising places in the solar system to hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Several missions -- including Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Juno, Cassini, and New Horizons -- have gathered strong evidence that Europa contains a huge ocean in its interior, beneath a shell of ice estimated to be between 2 to 20 miles (3 to 30 kilometres) thick the US space agency said.