NASA's Europa Clipper mission is on its way to Jupiter

NASA launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft, its largest ever for a mission to another planet, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket's second stage and deployed its solar arrays, starting its 1.8 billion-mile journey to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The mission will take five-and-a-half years, with the spacecraft flying by Mars and Earth to use their gravity to boost its momentum towards Jupiter. Europa has a thick icy shell covering a saltwater ocean, which could host organic compounds and energy sources, making it a promising place to search for life. The Europa Clipper will fly by Europa 49 times, using its nine instruments to investigate the moon's icy shell and ocean. It will look for areas with warmer ice and any plumes of water vapor escaping from the icy shell. The mission aims to understand how thick Europa's outer shell is and how deep the ocean underneath is. The spacecraft will operate its instruments simultaneously during each flyby to gather comprehensive data. NASA equipped the spacecraft with instruments such as an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument, all housed in a protective vault to shield them from Jupiter's intense radiation.