NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for Europa Clipper, the agency’s mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
NASA is targeting launch at 3.31 am on Friday, October 11 (AEDST), on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Beyond Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa is considered one of the solar system’s most promising potentially habitable environments. After an approximately 1.8-billion-mile journey, Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030, where the spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Europa to determine whether the icy world could have conditions suitable for life.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It carries a suite of nine instruments along with a gravity experiment that will investigate an ocean beneath Europa’s surface, which scientists believe contains twice as much liquid water as Earth’s oceans.
NASA will provide a live video feed of Launch Complex 39A approximately 18 hours before the mission’s planned liftoff on the NASA Kennedy newsroom YouTube channel. The feed will be uninterrupted until the launch broadcast begins on NASA+.
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the agency’s website.
