Europa Clipper Ready for Launch Tomorrow

NASA, SpaceX, and the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron gave the green light this afternoon for Europa Clipper to launch tomorrow at 12:06 pm ET.  The weather is 95 percent favorable. The launch was delayed from October 10 primarily because of Hurricane Milton. If anything should go awry tomorrow, it can launch any day between now and November 6 and still get to its destination, Jupiter’s moon Europa, in 2030.

Europa Clipper is atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, which SpaceX leases from NASA.  The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and JPL Director Laurie Leshin posted this photo on X earlier today.

Hello beautiful! #GoClipper pic.twitter.com/gIWB5lUplv

— Laurie Leshin (@LaurieofMars) October 13, 2024

NASA Senior Launch Director Tim Dunn told reporters this afternoon that the 15-second launch window actually opens at 12:05:45, but they hope to wait until 12:06:00, which will put the spacecraft on the optimal trajectory to Jupiter.  The 15 seconds is available in case they have to adjust the launch time by one or two seconds to avoid colliding with any Earth orbiting space objects — satellites or debris —  on their way out. They get Collision on Launch Assessment (COLA) information from the Space Force about two hours before launch.

The spacecraft will separate from the Falcon Heavy second stage just over one hour after launch.

SpaceX usually recovers at least the two Falcon Heavy side boosters and sometimes the core booster as well, but every drop of fuel is needed to get Europa Clipper on its way so none will be recovered this time.

After separation, the next key milestones will be Acquisition of Signal (AOS) and deployment of the two enormous solar arrays required to power the spacecraft’s instruments. Each array is 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) long and 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) high.  When deployed, Europa Clipper will be about the size of a basketball court.

Jordan Evans, Europa Clipper project manager at JPL, told reporters today that after AOS they will roll the spacecraft “like a rotisserie” to evenly warm up the solar array mechanisms. After 2-3 hours, the spacecraft will begin cutting the restraints, a process that will take about 30 minutes.

Clipper will make a close fly-by of Mars on March 1, 2025 to get a gravity assist and then head back towards Earth for another gravity assist in December 2026.  That will put it on track to enter orbit around Jupiter on April 11, 2030.

The $5.2 billion spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, but its purpose is studying Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa. Scientists believe a liquid water ocean exists under the icy crust and where there’s water there may be life — albeit microbial.

Clipper is not looking for life itself, but trying to determine if the conditions for life exist. It will make 49 close passes of  Europa’s surface, examining it with an array of scientific instruments including cameras, a magnetometer, a mass spectrometer, and an ice-penetrating radar.

The radiation environment is intense around Europa and earlier this year concerns arose about whether the transistors were sufficiently radiation-hardened. Engineers determined that they are.

A poem written by Poet Laureate Ada Limón is engraved on the inside of the vault that protects the scientific instruments along with a microchip with the names of 2.6 million people who signed up to send their names to Europa. NASA calls it a Message in a Bottle.

NASA coverage of the launch tomorrow begins at 11:00 am ET on NASA+.