NASA’s Europa Clipper mission aims to study whether the liquid water ocean beneath Europa’s icy crust could potentially support life.
NASA has launched another deep space mission — this one to explore an icy moon of Jupiter and study whether it could potentially be habitable. The Europa Clipper mission launched using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy at 12:06 p.m. ET today, Monday October 14, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, setting off on its long journey to the Jovian system.
“Liftoff, @EuropaClipper!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X. “Today, we embark on a new journey across the solar system in search of the ingredients for life within Jupiter’s icy moon. Our next chapter in space exploration has begun.”
The mission aims to explore the moon of Europa, which is particularly interesting to astrobiology researchers as it has a liquid water ocean. This ocean isn’t on the moon’s surface, however — as it is so far from the sun, the ocean is hidden beneath a icy shell of around 10 to 15 miles in thickness.
