NASA to take SpaceX flight for Mission to Jupiter’s icy moon

Washington, July 24: NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, slated for a launch to Jupiter’s icy moon in October 2024, will fly aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket built by SpaceX.

The US space agency will pay approximately $178 million to SpaceX for launch services, it said in a statement on Friday.

   

Europa Clipper will conduct a detailed survey of Europa and use a sophisticated suite of science instruments to investigate whether the icy moon has conditions suitable for life.

The mission — 45 times fly by the moon — aims to produce high-resolution images of Europa’s surface, determine its composition, look for signs of recent or ongoing geological activity, measure the thickness of the moon’s icy shell, search for subsurface lakes, and determine the depth and salinity of Europa’s ocean, NASA said.

The mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was cleared by NASA in 2015.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

four × 4 =