Jupit
A drawing of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, its long solar panels spread, in front of Jupiter.
Jupiter, mission

Europa Clipper

The largest spacecraft NASA has built for a planetary mission, bound for Europa.

Artist’s concept. Europa Clipper at Jupiter, as drawn for NASA. This is not a photograph. A drawing: no light-age. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Launched
14 October 2024
Earth flyby (planned)
3 December 2026
Arrives at Jupiter (planned)
April 2030
Span with solar arrays
more than 30.5 m

Where Europa Clipper is at the site clock’s time

Wind my clock at the bottom of the page and this follows.

13 au acrossDrag the map sideways, or press the arrow keys on it, to move timeOrbits and distances are to scale. I draw the Sun, planets and spacecraft larger than life until you zoom in. One au is the distance from Earth to the Sun, about 150 million km.
Path data
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The spacecraft

The model loads when you scroll here.

Drag to turn it, or use the arrow keys. Model: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD). NASA’s model reduced from about 204,000 triangles to 60,000, with textures reduced to 1024 pixels; no part was added or removed. I lit it with one lamp standing in for the Sun and a plain studio surround so the metal shows; colours and materials are the model’s own and may not match the real spacecraft exactly.

What we know

What it is for

NASA states the goal plainly: to find out whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life. It is not a life-detection mission. It will study the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, and the moon’s composition and geology, with nine instruments and a gravity experiment.

Clipper will orbit Jupiter, not Europa, and dive past the moon again and again: about fifty times, as close as 25 km. NASA’s own pages give the count as 49 in one place and “nearly 50” in another, so I give you both.

The route

It left Florida on a Falcon Heavy on 14 October 2024, weighing about 6,000 kg, nearly half of it propellant. On 1 March 2025 it passed 884 km above Mars. The Earth flyby planned for 3 December 2026, about 3,200 km up, gives the final push. Arrival at Jupiter is planned for April 2030, with the first Europa flyby in spring 2031.

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