A NASA mission aimed at investigating a moon of Jupiter, considered one of the galaxy’s best chances for finding life-supporting conditions, has officially commenced.

The Europa Clipper was successfully launched on Monday afternoon via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, designed to embark on a six-year quest to reach the icy ocean world it’s named after.

This launch, initially set for Thursday, faced delays due to Hurricane Milton approaching Florida, prompting NASA and SpaceX to protect the spacecraft in a hangar at the Kennedy Space Center. Once the hurricane passed, teams returned to examine the launch area at the Cape Canaveral spaceport, ultimately approving the spacecraft’s return to the launchpad for Monday’s launch.

The weather conditions improved on Monday, allowing teams to finalize preparations before the Clipper began its $5 billion flagship mission that NASA has been planning for years.

“Today, we begin a new adventure through the solar system, aiming to discover the ingredients for life on Jupiter’s icy moon,” expressed NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). “Our next chapter in space exploration has started.”

Here’s a summary of the Clipper mission and its launch off the Floridian coast:

Europa Clipper Takes Off from Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX Rocket

The Europa Clipper launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Before liftoff, the spacecraft was enclosed within a payload fairing designed to shield the Clipper from aerodynamic forces and heat during launch, which later detached and fell back to Earth. Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California crafted the spacecraft to withstand both the Falcon Heavy rocket launch and the harsh environment of outer space, according to NASA officials.

Upon liftoff, the rocket’s 27 Merlin engines produced over 5 million pounds of thrust, propelling the Clipper swiftly through the atmosphere toward Jupiter.

The rocket utilized side boosters previously employed during NASA’s Psyche mission, which launched about a year ago. Given the substantial energy required for the Europa Clipper to break free from Earth’s gravity and attain its interplanetary course, SpaceX did not plan to recover the boosters.

Later, the spacecraft successfully detached from the rocket’s second stage, while technicians worked to establish a signal from the Clipper to confirm its status as it unfurled its large solar arrays to continue its journey.

The Clipper’s path involves a 1.8 billion-mile journey to Europa, taking it past Mars and Earth, utilizing their gravitational pull to gain speed. After an over five-year voyage, the Clipper will ignite its engines to enter Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030, dedicating four years to mapping and exploring both above and below Europa’s surface.

What Does the Europa Clipper Mission Entail?

Europa, the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons, is a frozen celestial body that scientists believe might contain the essential conditions for life beneath its icy surface. If these life-supporting conditions do exist, NASA hopes that the Clipper will uncover them.

Since it was discovered as one of the first moons outside Earth, six spacecraft have visited Europa, with the most significant findings about its subsurface ocean coming from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which operated around Jupiter from 1995 to 2003.

Europa is a bit smaller than Earth’s moon, measuring about a quarter of Earth’s diameter, yet beneath its fractured surface lies a massive saltwater ocean that could be as deep as 100 miles, surpassing the combined depths of Earth’s oceans. Scientists believe that the icy shell above this ocean may hold clues about organic materials and energy sources, essential ingredients for life.

Experts think that ocean worlds like Europa are likely common throughout the universe, making the exploration of this moon a significant step towards understanding how life might exist beyond our planet. However, NASA has clarified that the primary goal of the Clipper mission is to identify conditions that might support life, rather than searching for life itself.

But how do liquid conditions exist in a world where temperatures can drop to between minus-208 and minus-370 degrees Fahrenheit? This phenomenon, known as tidal flexing, occurs due to the gravitational pull from Jupiter, which stretches and compresses Europa’s ocean and icy surface, generating heat that maintains the liquid state beneath its frigid exterior.

The mission of the Clipper is to explore Europa for signs of organic material vital for life and to analyze any gases that may be released from the moon, evaluating its potential habitability.

Clipper spacecraft is NASA’s largest of its kind

Spanning more than 100 feet from end to end, the spacecraft is larger than a basketball court and measures approximately 58 feet across. It weighed nearly 13,000 pounds at launch when fully fueled.

The solar arrays of the orbiter are about 46.5 feet long and 13.5 feet high, providing enough power from sunlight to operate the spacecraft, even at Jupiter’s distance, which is over five times farther from the sun than Earth.

To protect sensitive electronics, the spacecraft is equipped with a robust titanium and aluminum vault, as mission engineers have planned its orbits to minimize exposure to Jupiter’s intense radiation levels.

During 49 close flybys of Europa, the Clipper will collect and transmit valuable data to help scientists analyze elements like salinity and water depth beneath the surface of the moon. NASA indicates that these flybys will cover both the northern and southern hemispheres of Europa, with the closest pass occurring just 16 miles above its surface.

The Europa Clipper carries nine scientific instruments on board, including high-resolution cameras and ice-penetrating radar designed to explore the moon’s icy shell for indications of its hidden ocean. This radar will also analyze the ice’s characteristics, as well as the surface’s composition and roughness.

These instruments will simultaneously examine the moon’s geology and atmosphere during each flyby, enabling scientists to compile comprehensive data to develop a complete understanding of Europa.

NASA mission took years of advocacy, planning

Years of planning went into the Europa Clipper mission, which required grassroots efforts to secure funding from Congress amidst NASA’s diminishing budget, as stated by the Planetary Society.

The Planetary Society, a nonprofit focused on space exploration, dedicated over ten years to advocate for this mission, which was nearly canceled due to budget reductions, explained Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy, to YSL News.

Dreier commended NASA for “taking a significant and daring step” with the Clipper mission.

“The Europa Clipper represents one of the most thrilling projects NASA has pursued,” Dreier mentioned in the statement. “Its goal reflects the core mission of a publicly funded space agency: to expand our understanding of the universe, to utilize resources needed to survive in the extreme conditions of space billions of miles away, to conduct this work peacefully and from a place of curiosity, and to share the outcomes with the global community.”