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Falcon Heavy launches NASA's $5.2B Europa Clipper toward Jupiter's ocean moon
NASA's Europa Clipper lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on a fully expendable Falcon Heavy, starting a journey of about 1.8 billion miles to Jupiter. It is NASA's largest planetary spacecraft and will study whether the ocean under Europa's ice could support life.
- Mission cost through 2034 is $5.2B.
- Arrival at Jupiter set for April 11, 2030.
- About 50 close Europa flybys, as low as 16 miles.
- Nine instruments will map the surface, probe the ocean and look for plumes.