Jupiter moon probe: Europa Clipper shortly before launch
Hurricane Milton caused a delay in the launch. The search for life in space is now due to start four days later than planned.
Europa Clipper on board a Falcon Heavy at its launch site.
(Image: NASA)
Following a delay caused by Hurricane Milton, NASA has set a new launch date for the Europa Clipper space probe. The journey to Jupiter's icy moon was originally scheduled to begin last Thursday. Now the US space agency is planning for the probe to lift off on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket today, Monday, 18:06 (CEST), NASA announced.
NASA plans to show the launch of the mission live on the internet. The broadcast from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. (CEST). NASA will accompany the preparations and the launch itself with a weblog.
After Hurricane Milton passed by the west coast of Florida last week –, including Cape Canaveral –, NASA thoroughly checked the facilities required for the launch at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA engineers had previously had doubts as to whether the on-board electronics were really up to the demands of the mission. Following tests in September of this year, it was clear that the original schedule for the mission was still on track.
Europeans also visit Europe
NASA estimates an arrival in April 2030 for the 1.8 billion kilometers to Europa, when the probe will fly past the moon Europa 50 times over a period of around four years and investigate whether the conditions for life are met. Among other things, Europa Clipper will take photos of the surface. Modern measuring instruments should be able to detect traces of life. An ocean of water around 100 kilometers deep is thought to lie beneath an ice shell several kilometers thick. The mission could also provide information for possible future landing sites, for example to examine Europa more closely with the help of a diving robot.
Videos by heise
Europa is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter and was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei using a telescope. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 probes provided the first precise images of the moon's surface in 1979. Further findings were made with the Galileo mission, which began in 1995 and explored Jupiter and its moons for eight years. In addition to NASA, the European Space Agency ESA also wants to study Jupiter's moons in more detail. To this end, the Juice probe was launched into space in April 2023, which recently gained momentum during a flyby of Earth.
(anw)
