Tag: Europa Clipper
-
A year from launch, the Europa Clipper spacecraft nears finish line
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—The launch window for one of the most expensive robotic space missions in NASA’s history opens one year from Tuesday. Coming in at $5 billion, Europa Clipper will try to help scientists answer a bold question commensurate with its eye-popping cost: Are there places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa,…
-
As JUICE struggles with antenna deployment, program manager highlights status of the mission
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) latest interplanetary mission that is set to explore Jupiter and its three largest Moons, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), successfully launched on Friday, April 14, has been touted as a near-perfect feat. JUICE had little-to-no issues during the launch sequence, right from blasting off atop an Ariane 5 rocket…
-
Europa Clipper’s main body complete, teams continue work toward 2024 launch
In early June, the main body of NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper spacecraft completed construction and was shipped to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California soon after. The arrival of Europa Clipper’s main body marks a major milestone in the construction of the spacecraft and shows that the spacecraft and its teams are on…
-
Europa Clipper’s main body complete, teams continue work toward 2024 launch
In early June, the main body of NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper spacecraft completed construction and was shipped to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California soon after. The arrival of Europa Clipper’s main body marks a major milestone in the construction of the spacecraft and shows that the spacecraft and its teams are on…
-
NASA cites Falcon flight heritage to select SpaceX to launch Europa Clipper
On Friday, July 23, NASA announced that SpaceX was the winner of a commercial procurement to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will closely study the icy Galilean moon of Jupiter in search of signs of life and/or ongoing geological activity. The mission is due to launch no earlier than October 2024. SpaceX’s heavy-lift Falcon…
-
Europa volcanism & interior heating modeled in detail, offers research targets for upcoming missions
Europa, an icy Jovian moon that likely possesses an ocean beneath its icy crust, may have an interior that is hot enough to produce volcanic activity on its seafloor. New research provides evidence that this seafloor volcanism likely occurred in the moon’s past and maybe ongoing at present as well. The team of researchers, led…
-
NASA decides to launch Europa Clipper on commercial rocket in 2024
Artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, with Europa and Jupiter in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA has decided to launch the multibillion-dollar Europa Clipper mission on a commercial heavy-lift rocket in October 2024, and not on the government-owned Space Launch System, officials said Wednesday. The decision ends a prolonged dilemma for NASA, which until…
-
Juno team planning close flybys of Jupiter’s moons
The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute NASA’s Juno spacecraft could perform the first close flybys since the early 2000s of three of Jupiter’s largest moons, including Europa, if the space…
-
Water plumes on Europa detected by Galileo spacecraft
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s illustration of the Galileo spacecraft, Europa and Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan A review of data captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft as it orbited Jupiter in the 1990s indicates it likely flew through a plume of water vapor spewing from cracks in the surface of the moon…
-
Space Launch System, planetary exploration get big boosts in NASA budget
Artist’s illustration of the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA NASA’s planned rocket to send humans back to the moon and the agency’s solar system exploration program were big winners in a $20.7 billion budget passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on Friday. The NASA funding was part of a $1.3 trillion federal spending…