NASA’s Europa Clipper mission launched on October 14, 2024, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, beginning its journey to Jupiter.

As of now, the spacecraft is about 20 million km from Earth.

The spacecraft has deployed its solar arrays and magnetometer boom, with instruments being gradually activated.

Europa Clipper will travel over 2.9 billion km, including two flybys of Mars and Earth, before reaching Jupiter.

There, it will perform 49 flybys of Europa to study its potential for life, NSF has reported.

The spacecraft’s first flyby of Mars, scheduled for March 2025, will use gravity assist to increase its speed.

Written by B.C. Begley