11 Sep 2024
Targeting an Oct. 10 launch, Europa Clipper aims to determine whether Jupiter’s moon Europa potentially has the ingredients necessary for life.
NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 17, at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to discuss the upcoming Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
The briefing will be open to media and will air live on NASA+ and the agency’s website, plus Facebook, X, and YouTube. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Participants in the news conference include:
- Gina DiBraccio, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
- Jordan Evans, project manager, Europa Clipper, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Bonnie Buratti, deputy project scientist, Europa Clipper, JPL
- Stuart Hill, propulsion module delivery manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Armando Piloto, senior mission manager, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Questions can be asked on social media during the briefing using the hashtag #AskNASA.
Europa is one of the most promising places in our solar system to find an environment suitable for life beyond Earth. Evidence suggests that the ocean beneath Europa’s icy surface could contain the ingredients for life — water, the right chemistry, and energy. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will answer key questions about the moon’s potential habitability.
Europa Clipper’s launch period opens on Thursday, Oct. 10. The spacecraft, the largest NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. The mission is targeting an Oct. 10, 2024, launch.