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NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will collect data to help understand whether Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could support life, prepares for launch at the Kennedy Space Center.
Europa Clipper will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. The launch period opens on Thursday, October 10, the space agency reports.
The ship arrived on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane. USA to the Kennedy launch and landing facility on May 23.
The hardware traveled more than 2,500 miles from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where it was assembled.
The team transported Europa Clipper to the PHSF (Hazardous Cargo Service Facility) where they rotated it to an upright position.
It was then lifted from its protective shipping container.
Oceans on the moon Europe
Ahead, a series of activities will be carried out to prepare it for launch, including the installation of the high-gain antenna.
Likewise the installation of solar panels to power the spacecraft and load propellants that will help guide the ship to its destination.
Nine scientific instruments are on board to collect detailed measurements as Europa Clipper performs approximately 50 close flybys of the Jovian moon.
Research suggests that beneath the icy crust of the moon Europe exists an ocean twice the volume of all the oceans on Earth.