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PIA26422: Europa Clipper Launch Team at JPL's Mission Control
 Target Name:  Europa
 Mission:  Europa Clipper
 Spacecraft:  Europa Clipper
 Product Size:  8272 x 6200 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA26422.tif (141 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA26422.jpg (6.777 MB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Mission members celebrate during the successful launch of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft on Oct. 14, 2024, in the Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The spacecraft is bound on a 5½-year, 1.8 billion-mile (2.9 billion-kilometer) journey to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which scientists believe harbors a vast internal ocean that may have conditions suitable for supporting life.

click here for Figure A for PIA26422
Figure A
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Figure A shows the mission members in JPL's Mission Support Area watching intently during Europa Clipper's launch.

click here for Figure B for PIA26422
Figure B
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Figure B captures mission members tracking data during Europa Clipper's launch.

Europa Clipper's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

NASA's Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.

Find more information about Europa here: europa.nasa.gov

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2024-10-14