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Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter's Ocean World

The Europa Clipper spacecraft sits on a large, wheeled work platform. It high silver high gain antenna is facing toward us. Its solar panels are folded up and covered in red protective shields with Airbus printed on them. Several workers in blue jumpsuits are nearby.

Spacecraft Images From KSC

Europa Clipper arrived at Florida's Kennedy Space Center on May 23, 2024. Workers at KSC are making the final launch preparations for launch.

Europa Clipper's white payload fairing covers the vehicle. The NASA logo and blue mission identifier are painted on the front. A blue structure holds the spacecraft upright.

Europa Clipper Encapsulated in its Payload Fairings

Europa Clipper's payload fairings sit on either side of the payload like a clamshell. One of the spacecraft's black solar panels faces forward. The white payload fairings have blue support structures holding them in place.

Europa Clipper Encapsulation

The Europa Clipper spacecraft sits on a large, wheeled work platform. It high silver high gain antenna is facing toward us. Its solar panels are folded up and covered in red protective shields with Airbus printed on them. Several workers in blue jumpsuits are nearby.

Europa Clipper Propellant Load Preparations

Europa Clipper sits on a silver work stand. The spacecraft's high gain antenna is in the front and center of the image. The folded solar panels are attached to each side of the spacecraft. At least four workers in blue jumpsuits and white head covers are to the sides of the spacecraft.

Europa Clipper Propellant Load Preparations

Europa Clipper sits on a silver work stand with yellow and black caution tape around the edges. One of the spacecraft's two solar wings is featured prominently in this image. It's folded up against the spacecraft body. The solar array has a shiny black surface with lots of yellow dots and stripes. It reflects part of the room.

Europa Clipper Solar Array Wing Deployment (Second Wing)

Workers in blue protective clothing and white head coverings hold cables to position Europa Clipper's high gain antenna for installation on the spacecraft. Some workers are on the ground, and some are up on a platform.

Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Installed at KSC

Europa Clipper's high gain antenna sits on a platform surrounded by workers in protective clothing.

Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Moved at KSC

Three workers in blue protective jumpsuits with white head covers stand in front of part of the solar arrays for Europa Clipper.

Europa Clipper Solar Wing Deployment

Workers in blue protective clothing and white head covers watch as Europa Clipper is lifted and rotated.

Europa Clipper Spacecraft Rotated

Workers in blue protective clothing and white head covers watch as Europa Clipper is lifted and rotated.

Europa Clipper Spacecraft Unboxing

A green transport airplane carrying Europa Clipper sits on the runway in Florida.

Europa Clipper Arrives in Florida

Europa Clipper Images From JPL

Hardware for Europa Clipper, including the nine science instruments, was developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, and at partner institutions and contractor facilities across the United States and Europe. Most of the components were added to the spacecraft at JPL. A few parts, like the solar panels, are being added at Kennedy Space Center. (See the KSC gallery above.)

Workers in protective clothing and head covers sit and stand near the main body of Europa Clipper - a tall, silver cylinder with multiple orange and copper cables running between red-orange boxes on the exterior of the cynlinder.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Takes Center Stage

Workers in white protective clothing are on their backs and stomachs working underneath the main body of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The spacecraft is mostly covered in protective materials but orange-red boxes and copper-colored wires are visible.

Europa-Clipper Reaction Wheel Installation

Workers in white protective clothing lean over a big, silver-colored, open ended box that will house and protect Europa Clipper electronics.

Europa Clipper's Electronics Vault

A worker in protective clothing and a blue face mask leans over a large, nearly hexagonal-shaped box with copper-colored wires running over it.

Europa Clipper's Nadir Deck

A large silver colored dish-shaped antenna hangs on the side of the main Europa Clipper spacecraft body on a work stand. Workers are the floor nearby.

High Gain Antenna Installed On Europa Clipper

Workers in white protective clothing sit, and crouch on the floor as they unfurl a long, shiny silver-colored piece of equipment. Round hoops and aluminum-colored tripods help support the equipment.

Europa Clipper’s Magnetometer (ECM) Boom Deployed

Two workers in protective clothing point and lean toward a piece of equipment covered in silver material.

Europa Clipper’s Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) Delivered to JPL

Ten workers in white protective clothing and blue face masks stand behind a table with a spacecraft instrument on it and give a thumbs up.

Europa Clipper's Plasma Detection Instrument (PIMS) Delivered to JPL

A small dark gray instrument that widens at the top sits on metal table with a blue cloth and tools on it. A worker in white protective clothing with the initials APL on the left side points at the instrument.

Europa Clipper’s Wide-Angle Camera Delivered to JPL

An engineer wearing a blue protective head covering examines the gold-colored, cannister-shaped SUDA instrument as it sits on a metal table.

Europa Clipper's Dust Analyzer Delivered to JPL

Two workers in protective clothing stand at a laptop on a stand as they inspect the MASPEX instrument sitting nearby. The instrument is on a stand making it about as tall as the workers. It has gold- or copper-colored wires secured by blue zip ties.

Europa Clipper’s Mass Spectrometer (MASPEX) is Delivered to JPL

A cream-colored instrument sits on a workbench. A worker's gloved hand can be seen touching it.

Europa Clipper’s Thermal Imager (E-THEMIS) is Delivered to JPL

A gray and silver metal box is attached to the upper right side of Europa Clipper's nadir deck - a thick matte-gray polygonal structure filling about one-third of the image. One of the spacecraft’s star tracker telescopes is visible jutting from the nadir deck diagonally toward the upper right. It has a red cap on the end. Two other red covers are visible on the instrument.

Europa Clipper's Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS)

An engineer in protective clothing and gloves works on a silver-colored instrument with a red cap on top.

Europa Clipper’s Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE)

Three people work on a Europa Clipper instrument in a ooned-off area in a hilly part of JPL. Equipment includes a white tower with a spiral staircase to reach the instrument - which looks like a long white board with orange markings. The tower is next to a beige-colored building. A beige-colored lift sits nearby on a yellow platform.

Europa Clipper's REASON High Frequency Radar Antenna

Mission Illustrations

An artist's concept of NASA's Europa Clipper above Jupiter. The spacecraft's solar panels appear dark gray. Instruments can be seen protruding from the spacecraft. Jupiter has pale stripes of beige and reddish-brown.

Europa Clipper Orbiting Jupiter (Artist’s Concept)

A dark Europa Clipper spacecraft orbits Jupiter with a bit of the surface of Europa showing below. Jupiter is in the background.

Europa Clipper in the Shadow of Jupiter (Artist's Concept)

An artist's concept of Europa Clipper flying above Europa and in front of Jupiter.

Europa Clipper Over Europa (Artist's Concept)

A spacecraft hovers over a reddish striped moon with planet Jupiter in the background.

Europa Clipper Over Europa (Artist's Concept)

An illustration with purple, white, red, and blue circles showing the path of the silver Europa Clipper spacecraft as it travels to the Jupiter system. The blue circle shows the spacecraft's gravity assist at Earth, the red circle shows the spacecraft's path around Mars, and the purple path shows the spacecraft arriving at Jupiter. The spacecraft is shown on the white circle nearing Jupiter. In the center of the image is our Sun shown in yellowish orange.

Europa Clipper’s Looping Journey to Jupiter (Artist’s Concept)

The orbits of Jupiter's four largest moons are shown with dark circles. A hazy, blueish Jupiter is in the center of the image. Red, gold, and beige bands around Jupiter illustrate the intensity of the planet's radiation bands. A blue ellipse shows the path Europa Clipper will take as it makes close passes over Europa.

Europa Clipper's Elliptical Orbit (Artist's Concept)

A side view of what Europa what look like if we could slice into it. There's beige, and white crust with reddish streaks and plumes erupting. Below the crust is a blue ocean on top of a brown crust with a reddish hotspot in the lower left corner.

Europa's Mysterious Interior (Artist's Concept)

A gray model of Europa Clipper hovers above a yellowish orange illustration of a basketball court.

Europa Clipper: NASA’s Largest Planetary Spacecraft (Artist’s Concept)

A graphic with a purple curved line bending upward from the bottom left side of the page to show what happens to Europa Clipper after launch. Small illustrations show the rocket at launch, booster separation, stage separations, fairing jettison, parking orbit, rocket burns to boost the spaceship toward Jupiter, and finally separation of the spacecraft from the remaining piece of the launch vehicle. A table on the right side of the illustration gives times for each of the events depicted by the graphic.

Europa Clipper Launch Ascent Timeline

An illustration showing the path Europa Clipper will take to reach Jupiter. An orange Sun is in the middle. A blue circle shows the path the spacecraft takes after launch. Then a red circle shows the gravity assist at Mars, and another blue line shows the part of the gravity assist at Earth with the path then heading toward Jupiter.

Europa Clipper's Trajectory to Jupiter

Europa as Seen From NASA Spacecraft

Explore images of Europa take by NASA spacecraft.

Europa looks like a partially lit fuzzy, yellow-orange orb in this image from Pioneer 10.

Pioneer 10 Took the First Image of Europa From a Spacecraft in December 1973

Europa appears pearl-colored in this image from Voyager 1.

A View of Europa Taken by Voyager 1 on March 2, 1979

A partial view of Europa from Voyager 2. The moon looks red with darker read lines running across the surface.

Europa During Voyager 2's Closest Approach on July 9, 1979

Two views of Europa in different colors.

Galileo Images of Europa Taken on Sept. 7, 1996

The largest portion of the Europa's surface can be seen at the highest resolution from Galileo.

Europa's Stunning Surface From Galileo in a Reprocessed Color View Made from Images Taken in the Late 1990s

Images of Europa from three different spacecraft.

Three Views of Europa: Far Left is From Voyager 1, Center is Voyager 2, and Right is Galileo

Europa appears gray with darker streaks in this image from New Horizons.

First Image of Europa Returned by New Horizons - Taken on Feb. 27, 2007

Europa rises above Jupiter in this image from New Horizons,

New Horizons Spies Europa Europa Hanging Above Jupiter's Clouds on Feb. 28, 2007

A montage of Jupiter's four largest moons.

A Montage of Jupiter's Moons From New Horizons During Its Flyby in February 2007

Europa has reddish brown lines and patches in this image from Juno.

Juno Images Europa During a Flyby on Sept. 29, 2022

Europa Up Close

NASA's Europa Clipper will add to the images gathered by NASA spacecraft that have photographed the moon up close. Here's a sampling of those earlier images.

This close up image of Europa's surfaces has color added so it appears reddish and blue with white patches.

Europa 'Ice Rafts' in Local and Color Context

The surface of Europa appears gray with raised ridges streaking across it.

Close-up of Europa's Surface

In this close-up image, Europa's surface appears gray with a ridge cutting across the middle of it.

Mosaic of Europa's Ridges, Craters

Europa's surface appears dark gray with darker bands across it in this close-up image.

Europa Ice Floes

Reddish bands streak across Europa's surface

Reddish Bands on Europa

Many features on Europa's surface are visible in this close-up image including reddish lines criss crossing the cream-colored surface.

Europa's Rhadamanthys Linea

Europa's Pwyll Crater looks like a bright, white circle surrounded by reddish lines criss crossing the moon's surface.

Europa's Pwyll Crater

Europa's surface is streaked with reddish lines. A bright white crater is visible.

Europa Ice Rafting

Red spots resembling freckles and reddish lines can be seen in this image of Europa.

Ruddy Freckles on Europa

A color enhanced photo of Europa showing a bluish surface with reddish streaks.

Europa in Color

What appears to be the outline of a mitten can be seen in this view of Europa.

Mitten-Shaped Region of Chaotic Terrain on Europa

Two images of Europa's surface appear to overlap each other on a black background. The images show regions with dark, reddish terrain.

Thera and Thrace on Europa

A series of detailed images of the surface of Europa.

Highest-Resolution Europa Image and Mosaic from Galileo

A close up view of the surface of Europa. There's a black line down the middle of the image where data is missing.

Highest Resolution View of Europa

Close up view of Europa's surface.

High Resolution Image of Europa

A gray band is seen on the surface of Europa.

A Record of Crustal Movement on Europa

A black and white image of Europa's surface shows a feature shaped somewhat like the musical symbol for a quarter note – surrounded by linear ridges and dark blotches.

Juno's Star Camera Sees Europa Close-Up

Videos

An artist's concept showing a silver, shiny Europa Clipper spacecraft in front of a silver Europa. Europa has pale, reddish streaks. Jupiter is behind Europa. In this illustration, Jupiter's beige, than, and reddish stripes run vertical. Jupiter's Great Red Spot also is shown.

Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon (Mission Overview)

Illustration of Europa Clipper with Jupiter in the background and the surface of Europa below with a plume spraying up.

Why Does NASA Want to Explore Jupiter’s Ocean Moon? 

An illustration of Europa in blue. This image serves as a slate to open a video about Europa.

Other Worlds: Europa

An image of the Europa Clipper vault plate, highlighted from the upper left corner casting shadows that emphasize engraved waveforms emanating from a central point symbolizing the word 'water' in multiple languages. The waveforms present as audio frequency waves. The vault plate is metal silver and the engravings are black, set against a black background.

NASA's Design for Message Heading to Jupiter's Moon Europa

A view of Europa showing most of one side of the moon. The moon is gray with reddish bands running across it.

What You Need to Know About Europa

A view of Europa showing most of one side of the moon. The moon is gray with reddish bands running across it.

Esto es lo que necesitas saber sobre Europa

Two figure skaters wearing jackets stand on an ice rink.

Olympic Figure Skaters Explore the Icy Moon Europa with NASA

A purple slate for a video with the words "Space Shorts" and an illustration of an astronaut in a space suit with red shorts over the pants.

Space Shorts: Could Jupiter's Moon Europa Have an Ocean?

A spacecraft hovers over a reddish striped moon with planet Jupiter in the background.

Searching for Life on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Europa video screenshot

Alien Ocean

Large, white dish-shaped antennas on a green, grassy field.

How NASA Communicates With Faraway Spacecraft

Behind the Spacecraft

Meet some of the engineers contributing to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

An image of Dipak Srinivasan holding a spacecraft component. Behind him is a purple wall with faint images. Overlaid on the image is text for a video series: NASA Job: Communicates With Spacecraft (AKA Communication Systems Engineer)

NASA Job: Communications Systems Engineer 

NASA Job: Navigation Engineer

NASA Job: Cruise Phase Engineer

NASA Job: Science Systems Engineer

Spacecraft Makers

Spacecraft Makers is a video series that takes you behind the scenes to learn more about how space missions, like Europa Clipper, come together.

A split graphic and image for a video about Europa Clipper. On the left is the graphic with the words "Spacecraft Makers: Europa Clipper, Episode 1". On the right is an image of the spacecraft with workers around it.

Spacecraft Makers: Introducing Europa Clipper

Workers in protective clothing work on the Europa Clipper.

Spacecraft Makers: Testing Europa Clipper’s Magnetometer

A split image with a graphic for a video on the left, and an image of two workers on the right. The workers are behind a table with a silver-colored spacecraft blanket on it.

Spacecraft Makers: Sewing Blankets for NASA’s Europa Clipper

A split image with a blue slate on the left with words on it promoting a video. On the right is an image of Europa Clipper.

Spacecraft Makers: Europa Clipper's Instrument Integration

Slate for a video about the assembly of Europa Clipper.

Spacecraft Makers: Simulating Space to Test Europa Clipper

An image of people working on Europa Clipper with a blue panel to the left giving information about a video on keeping the spacecraft clean.

Spacecraft Makers: How We Keep Europa Clipper Super Clean

Animations

A screengrab from an animation showing Europa Clipper after launch.

Mission Animation: Launch

Mission Animation: Fairing Separation

A screengrab from a video showing Europa Clipper deploying in space after launch from Earth.

Mission Animation: Deployment

A screengrab from a video showing Europa Clipper opening its solar arrays in space. Earth is behind the spacecraft.

Mission Animation: Solar Arrays Deployment

An image from a video about Europa Clipper making a gravity assist at Mars.

Mission Animation: Mars Gravity Assist

An illustration from an animation showing Europa Clipper with Jupiter and Europa.

Mission Animation: Arrival at Europa

An artist's concept of Europa Clipper flying past Europa.

Mission Animation 1: Europa Flyby

An illustration of Europa Clipper flying by Europa with Jupiter behind Europa.

Mission Animation 2: Europa Flyby

An illustration of Europa Clipper in front of Europa.

Mission Animation 4: Europa Flyby

An illustration of Europa Clipper flying by Europa.

Mission Animation 3: Europa Flyby

A screenshot of an illustration from an animation showing Europa Clipper in space. Some of the instrument names are shown.

Mission Animation: Spacecraft 360 with Instruments

A screengrab from an animation showing Europa Clipper in space.

Mission Animation: REASON Deployment

An illustration showing Europa Clipper in space and deploying its ECM boom.

Mission Animation: ECM Boom Deployment (Close)

An illustration showing a closeup of Europa Clipper's ECM boom being deployed.

Mission Animation: ECM Boom Deployment (Extra Close)

A screengrab from a video showing Europa Clipper's ECM Boom deployed from a distance.

Mission Animation: ECM Boom Deployment (Distant)

An artist's concept of what the interior of Europa would look like.

Europa Tide Movie

Europa Clipper Models

A toy brick model of Europa Clipper with the spacecraft solar arrays in blue, and the high gain antenna in yellow. The rest of the spacecraft is light gray and it's sitting on a black base.

Toy Bricks Model

Build a 1/48th scale model of the Europa Clipper spacecraft using toy bricks.

Image showing a paper model of Europa Clipper. The solar panels are blue, the high gain antenna is blue and yellow. The rest of the spacecraft is bronze.

Paper Model

Build your own version of Europa Clipper, learning how each part of the spacecraft fits together as you go.

A hand holds a 3D printed version of Europa Clipper. The solar winds are bluish or purple. The rest of the spacecraft is pale yellow.

3D Print the Spacecraft

Create your own 3D printed model of the Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Posters and Wallpapers

An artist's concept of Europa Clipper above Europa with Jupiter in the background.

Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean World: Posters and Wallpapers (Phone and Desktop)

Alt text: An illustration of Europa Clipper over Europa with Jupiter in the background.

Europa Clipper: Journey to an Ocean World Poster

Europa

Jupiter's Moon Europa Poster - Version A

Jupiter’s Moon Europa Poster – Version B

A multi-colored graphic showing various facts about Europa.

Deep Dive on Jupiter's Moon Europa Infographic

A fanciful blue, black, and white illustration of space tourists at Europa.

Europa Travel Poster

Download Stickers

A blue and white Europa Clipper sticker on the left, and text about the mission on the right.

Europa Clipper Sticker (Blue - English)

An image of a Europa Clipper sticker. It has the blue Europa Clipper logo on the left, and text describing the mission on the right.

Europa Clipper Sticker (White - English)

An image showing the front and back of a sticker for Europa. An image of the moon is on the left, and a description of Europa is on the right.

Europa Moon Sticker (English)

Image showing Europa Clipper's mission identifier.

Europa Clipper Mission Identifier (Horizontal)

Europa Clipper Mission Identifier

Europa Clipper Mission Identifier (Vertical)

A blue and white Europa Clipper sticker on the left, and text about the mission on the right.

Adhesivo de Europa Clipper (blanco, en español)

Adhesivo de Europa Clipper (azul, en español)

Adhesivo de Europa Clipper (azul, en español)

Adhesivo de la luna Europa (en español)

Adhesivo de la luna Europa (en español)

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