Europa Clipper

Uncommon card · No. 76132

Europa Clipper (previously known as the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a mission to send a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. Launched by a Falcon Heavy on October 14, 2024, the probe is planned to enter Jupiter orbit in April 2030 and conduct a series of flybys of Europa from March 2031. Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by NASA. The mission used a gravity assist from Mars in March 2025, and will use an assist from Earth in December 2026. Europa Clipper will investigate the subsurface ocean below Europa's ice crust, found by the Galileo spacecraft which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Cancelled Europa missions Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter called for orbiting the moon. However, Europa's vicinity experiences extreme radiation, being deep within the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Thus Europa Clipper will enter an elliptical orbit around Jupiter via a gravity assist from Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede...

Read on Wikipedia · Image National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) · Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Public domain