Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) – Page 3

NASA, SpaceX Complete Europa Clipper Mission’s Launch Readiness Review

NASA will host a prelaunch media teleconference at 5 p.m. EDT Sunday to discuss the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Earlier in the day, NASA and SpaceX completed a launch readiness review, resulting in a “go” for launch of the spacecraft that will conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

Coverage of the prelaunch teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.

Participants include:

NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free
Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
Jordan Evans, project manager, Europa Clipper, NASA JPL
Tim Dunn, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Julianna Scheiman, director, NASA Science Missions, SpaceX
Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 45

Meteorologists with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 Weather Squadron are predicting a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch, which is targeting 12:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 14, from Launch Complex 39A.

To learn more about the Europa Clipper mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper

Join the conversation and get updates from these accounts:

X: @NASA, @EuropaClipper, @NASASolarSystem, @NASAJPL, @NASAKennedy, @NASA_LSP
Facebook: NASA, NASA’s Europa Clipper, NASA’s JPL, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Instagram: @NASA, @nasasolarsystem, @NASAKennedy, @NASAJPL

NASA, SpaceX Set Launch Readiness Review for Europa Clipper Mission

NASA and SpaceX are moving forward with plans to conduct a Launch Readiness Review at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 13, ahead of a targeted launch for the agency’s Europa Clipper mission no earlier than Monday, Oct. 14. Teams stood down from a potential launch opportunity on Oct. 13, to double-check technical readiness of the Falcon Heavy rocket, as well as continued assessments for launch readiness following Hurricane Milton.

NASA issued an updated media advisory late Saturday with coverage details for prelaunch and launch activities.

NASA Begins Post-Hurricane Milton Assessments at Kennedy

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remains closed as Hurricane Milton moves off the coast.

The safety of everyone impacted by the storm remains our top priority as the agency begins the assessment and recovery process from the hurricane.

Once the winds subsided to a safe level, the center’s Ride Out Team and engineering teams began initial checkouts to ensure bridges are safe and useable. Later, a larger assessment team will thoroughly check the entire center.

The agency’s Europa Clipper launch team will schedule an official launch date when teams from NASA and SpaceX are able to perform their assessments, and confirm it’s safe to launch. Teams are working to protect launch opportunities no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13. Clipper has launch opportunities through Wednesday, Nov. 6.

NASA will provide more information on Clipper launch opportunities as it becomes available.

NASA, SpaceX Secure Europa Clipper Ahead of Hurricane

NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Thursday, Oct. 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area. Hurricane Milton is expected to move from the Gulf of Mexico this week moving east to the Space Coast. High winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast. Launch teams have secured NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the severe weather, and the center began hurricane preparations Sunday.

“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program.

On Oct. 4, workers transported NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in the hangar as part of final launch preparations ahead of its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon. While Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10, the window provides launch opportunities until Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Once the storm passes, recovery teams will assess the safety of the spaceport before personnel return to work. Then launch teams will assess the launch processing facilities for damage from the storm.

“Once we have the ‘all-clear’ followed by facility assessment and any recovery actions, we will determine the next launch opportunity for this NASA flagship mission,” said Dunn.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft Transported to Hangar

On Friday, Oct. 4, workers transported NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A on the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for launch.

Earlier in the week, technicians completed the encapsulation of the spacecraft inside a payload fairing at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on NASA Kennedy. The fairings will protect the spacecraft from aerodynamic pressure and heat during launch before eventually separating and falling back to Earth.

Soon, technicians will mate the spacecraft to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in preparation for launch, roll the rocket to the launch pad, and raise it to a vertical position ahead of liftoff. Europa Clipper’s launch period opens at 12:31 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 10.

The largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, robotic solar-powered Europa Clipper will conduct the first detailed investigations of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make nearly 50 flybys of Europa to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with NASA JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, 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.

To learn more about the Europa Clipper mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper

Join the conversation and get updates from these accounts:

Teams Hold Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s Europa Clipper

Technicians encapsulated NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside payload fairings on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

NASA, SpaceX, and Europa Clipper mission managers met Friday, Oct. 4, to conduct a Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the review, teams provided an update on the mission’s status and certified its readiness to initiate final launch preparation activities. Europa Clipper will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.

Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s main science objectives are to understand the nature of Europa’s ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology. This detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Upon reaching its destination in 2030, Europa Clipper will perform dozens of close flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make closest-approach flybys at altitudes as low as 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.

Europa Clipper’s launch period opens at 12:31 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 10.

To learn more about the Europa Clipper mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mated to Payload Adapter, Encapsulated

NASA and SpaceX technicians recently completed several important milestones as they prepare for the upcoming launch of the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

First, teams connected the Europa Clipper spacecraft to the payload adapter on Thursday, Sept. 26, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With Europa Clipper securely attached to the payload adapter, the team then connected the combined assembly to the payload attach fitting on Monday, Sept. 30. These operations will enable the spacecraft to join with the rocket in the coming days.

Next, teams detached various coverings that shielded sensitive parts of the spacecraft during processing. Finally, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, teams encapsulated the spacecraft inside payload fairings, which will protect the spacecraft from aerodynamic pressure and heat during launch. After liftoff, the fairings will separate once the rocket’s second stage climbs high enough, approximately 5 minutes into the flight, and the fairings will return to Earth where SpaceX plans to recover them

NASA is targeting Thursday, Oct. 10, for launching Europa Clipper on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. This will start a years-long journey to Jupiter, where it will help scientists determine if the enigmatic moon has conditions suitable to support life.

To learn more about the Europa Clipper mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper

Join the conversation and get updates from these accounts:

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Advances with Solar Array Deployment

Three people in jumpsuits stand in front of a stretched out five-panel solar array inside of a building. — Technicians examine the first of two fully extended five-panel solar arrays built for NASA’s Europa Clipper suspended on a support system called a gravity offload fixture during inspection and cleaning as part of assembly, test, and launch operations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Processing of the large solar arrays built for NASA’s Europa Clipper is now underway inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Planned to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which shows strong evidence beneath its icy crust of a global ocean over twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans. Europa is currently considered one of the most promising habitable environments in our solar system.

The first of two five-panel solar arrays built for NASA’s Europa Clipper stands inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for inspection and cleaning as part of assembly, test, and launch operations on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Once processing of the first five-panel solar array is complete, technicians will remove it from the gravity offload fixture, which helps support the weight of the array. The same steps will then be repeated with the second solar array. Built by Airbus in Leiden, Netherlands, the arrays arrived at Kennedy late last month by truck, after travelling to the U.S. by air.

When both solar arrays are installed and deployed on Europa Clipper – the agency’s largest spacecraft ever developed for a planetary mission – the spacecraft will span a total length of more than 100 feet and weigh 7,145 pounds without the inclusion of propellants. The spacecraft needs the large solar arrays to collect enough light to power it as it operates in the Jupiter system, which is more than five times as far from the Sun as Earth.

Europa Clipper is being assembled at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and is managed in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The spacecraft will ship to Florida later this year for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is managing the launch service.

Join the conversation and get Europa Clipper mission updates from these accounts:

X: @EuropaClipper, @NASA, @NASAJPL, @NASA_LSP, @NASASolarSystem, @NASAKennedy

Facebook: NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission, NASA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s Launch Services Program, NASA Solar System Exploration, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Instagram: @NASA, @NASAJPL, @NASASolarSystem, @NASAKennedy