NASA, SpaceX, and Europa Clipper mission managers met Friday, Oct. 4, to conduct a Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the review, teams provided an update on the mission’s status and certified its readiness to initiate final launch preparation activities. Europa Clipper will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy …
NASA and SpaceX technicians recently completed several important milestones as they prepare for the upcoming launch of the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. First, teams connected the Europa Clipper spacecraft to the payload adapter on Thursday, Sept. 26, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in …
Technicians completed loading propellants in the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on Sunday, Sept. 22, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Housed in the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, Europa Clipper’s propulsion module is an aluminum cylinder 10 feet (3 meters) long and 5 …
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission passed a mission planning milestone, known as Key Decision Point E, on Monday. It now is approved to continue to proceed toward launch, with a launch period that opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission remains on track, with a launch period opening on Thursday, Oct. 10. The next major milestone for Clipper is Key Decision Point E on Monday, Sept. 9, in which the agency will decide whether the project is ready to proceed to launch and mission operations. NASA will provide more information at …
Launch preparations are progressing with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The spacecraft arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May, where the team recently attached the high-gain antenna. Engineers with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission continue to conduct extensive testing of transistors that help control the flow of electricity on the spacecraft. NASA’s Jet …
When NASA’s Europa Clipper is in orbit around Jupiter, transmitting science data and receiving commands from Earth across hundreds of millions of miles, it will need a powerful antenna. Technicians installed the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 17. Scheduled to launch later …
As NASA’s Europa Clipper continues preparations in advance of its launch period — opening Oct. 10 — the mission team is assessing whether transistors on the spacecraft can withstand the intense radiation the probe will encounter at Jupiter. These transistors are used as electrical switches in many digital electronics. The particular versions used by Europa …
NASA’s Europa Clipper, a spacecraft designed to investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and its potential to support life, arrived in Florida on May 23. The spacecraft, assembled at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, landed aboard a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s …
