ICYMI: What We Know About NASA's Europa Mission

Published October 16, 2024 at 10:28 AM EDT

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Europa Clipper spacecraft aboard launches from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

A mission to study one of the solar system's most promising environments is underway.

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft was designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter's moon Europa, launched on Monday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Europa Clipper will serve as the organization's first spacecraft dedicated to studying an ice-covered ocean world in our solar system.

It aims to determine whether the moon could be habitable for life as we know it. The spacecraft will carry nine instruments and a gravity experiment intended to investigate the ocean beneath Europa's thick ice shell.

The moon's ocean is estimated to contain twice as much liquid water as Earth's oceans.

David W. Brown is the author "The Mission." His book chronicles the quest to study this remarkable celestial body.

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