NASA launches Europa Clipper mission to an icy moon of Jupiter

NASA has launched its Europa Clipper mission to the icy moon of Jupiter. Thought to contain an underground ocean and potentially habitable environment, Europa has long been a tantalizing target.

For decades, an icy moon of Jupiter has been considered one of the most promising places to search for extraterrestrial life in the solar system. Thought to have an underground ocean and a potentially habitable environment, Europa has long seemed a tantalizing target in our cosmic backyard.

Now, humanity is poised to get a closer look at Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon.

At 12:06 p.m. ET Monday, NASA launched a mission to Europa, dubbed Europa Clipper. The largest spacecraft the agency has ever built for a planetary science mission, the probe lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Shortly after 1 p.m. ET, NASA and SpaceX confirmed that Europa Clipper had been successfully deployed in space.

“We can see that Clipper has successfully separated. Please say goodbye to Clipper on its way to Europa,” Pranay Mishra, the mission’s flight director from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said during the launch broadcast.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-launch-europa-clipper-mission-icy-moon-jupiter-rcna171706

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