Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper (previously known as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a mission to send a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. Launched by a Falcon Heavy on October 14, 2024, the probe is planned to enter Jupiter orbit in April 2030 and conduct a series of flybys of Europa from March 2031. Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by NASA. The mission used a gravity assist from Mars in March 2025, and will use an assist from Earth in December 2026. Europa Clipper will investigate the subsurface ocean below Europa's ice crust, found by the Galileo spacecraft which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Cancelled Europa missions Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter called for orbiting the moon. However, Europa's vicinity experiences extreme radiation, being deep within the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Thus Europa Clipper will enter an elliptical orbit around Jupiter via a gravity assist from Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, and make 49 close flybys of the moon. At its mission end, planned for 2034 or later, it will be intentionally crashed, likely into Ganymede, to prevent forward contamination of Europa. The orbiter aims to analyze the induced magnetic field around Europa. Its Surface Dust Analyzer mass spectrometer aims to detect and directly sample the subsurface ocean via its water vapor plume ejecta from cryovolcanoes; it is capable of identifying a single bacterium. The mission's name is a reference to the lightweight, fast clipper ships of the 19th century that routinely plied trade routes, since the spacecraft will pass by Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks. The mission patch, which depicts a sailing ship, references the moniker. Europa Clipper complements the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, launched in 2023, which will attempt to...