NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa | Complete Flight

SpaceX is targeting Monday, October 14 for launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window opens at 12:06 p.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Tuesday, October 15 at 11:58 a.m. ET.
This is the sixth and final flight for the first stage side boosters supporting this mission, which previously launched USSF-44, USSF-67, USSF-52, Hughes JUPITER 3, and NASA’s Psyche mission exactly one year ago.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission with solar arrays spanning more than 100 feet (~30 meters) when deployed and weighing nearly 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms) at launch. Powered by 24 engines, Europa Clipper will make nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, surveying for conditions suitable to support life after scientists predicted that a salty ocean lies beneath Europa’s icy surface which has more water than Earth’s oceans combined. It will take five years to reach Europa, with an anticipated arrival in 2030.