NASA launches spacecraft to study Jupiter's moon

LOS ANGELES — NASA and SpaceX launched a new mission to Jupiter on Monday to explore the mysteries of Europa, Jupiter's ocean moon.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is NASA's largest planetary spacecraft, launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA later confirmed the spacecraft separated from the rocket, and is now sailing through space on its own, bound for the Jupiter system.

The Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia, received a signal from Europa Clipper after its launch, marking the first indicator that the spacecraft is communicating with Earth, according to NASA.

"Today, we embark on a new journey across the solar system in search of the ingredients for life within Jupiter's icy moon. Our next chapter in space exploration has begun," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on social media platform X.

Europa Clipper is the first mission designed to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa.

It is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission with solar arrays spanning more than 30 meters when deployed and weighing nearly 6,000 kilograms at launch.

Europa Clipper will travel about 2.9 billion kilometers to reach Jupiter in April 2030. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make nearly 50 flybys at closest-approach altitudes as low as 25 km above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon, according to NASA.

The mission aims to understand the nature of Europa's ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon's composition and geology.

Even though Europa, the fourth-largest of Jupiter's 95 officially recognized moons, is just a quarter of Earth's diameter, its vast global ocean of salty liquid water may contain twice the water in the Earth's oceans. The Earth's oceans are thought to have been the birthplace for life on our planet.

Europa, whose diameter of roughly 3,100 km, is approximately 90 percent that of our moon, has been viewed as a potential habitat for life beyond Earth in our solar system. Its icy shell is believed to be 15-25 km thick, sitting atop an ocean 60-150 km deep.

NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free told a prelaunch briefing on Sunday that Europa boasts one of the most promising environments for potential habitability in our solar system, beyond Earth, though he noted this mission will not be a search for any actual living organisms.

"What we discover on Europa," Free said, "will have profound implications for the study of astrobiology and how we view our place in the universe".

"Scientists believe Europa has suitable conditions below its icy surface to support life. Its conditions are water, energy, chemistry and stability," said Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate.

Europa Clipper will be operating in an intense radiation environment around Jupiter, our solar system's biggest planet.

Jupiter is enveloped by a magnetic field about 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. This magnetic field spins, capturing and accelerating charged particles and creating radiation that could harm spacecraft. NASA has fashioned a vault made of titanium and aluminum inside the Europa Clipper to protect its sensitive electronics from this radiation.

"One of the Europa Clipper mission's main challenges is delivering a spacecraft hardy enough to withstand the pummeling of radiation from Jupiter but also sensitive enough to gather the measurements needed to investigate Europa's environment," Connelly said.

Agencies - Xinhua