NASA's first mission to another ocean world in our solar system will launch toward Jupiter on Monday (Oct. 14), but if you want to watch it live, you'll need to know when to tune in.
Europa Clipper, a $5-billion NASA mission to study the salty ocean beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa, will launch on its way Monday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff is set for 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) from NASA's Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"Clipper is the first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth," NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free told reporters in a briefing on Sunday evening (Oct. 13). Europa has long been on scientists' short list of most promising places that could support life beyond Earth. The Europa Clipper probe, Free said, aims to understand just how habitable the icy moon really is. Here's when and how to watch the Europa Clipper mission launch online.
NASA is currently targeting Monday, Oct. 14, at 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) to launch the Europa Clipper mission on its SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The mission will have a 15-second launch window in which to liftoff, with SpaceX aiming for the end of that opportunity. There is a 95% chance of good weather at launch time.
SpaceX initially aimed to launch Europa Clipper on Oct. 10, but postponed the flight due to the approach of Hurricane Milton, which swept across Florida in the days leading up to that launch attempt, leaving millions without power across the state. The storm damaged some parts of Kennedy Space Center, but the center opened a few days later to resume Europa Clipper launch preparations.
"The SpaceX and NASA teams did a great job keeping hardware safe," Free said in the briefing, adding that his heart goes out to all those affected by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, which preceded it.
Yes, you'll be able to watch the Europa Clipper launch online. In fact, you have several options on where to tune in.
NASA will offer a free webcast in English for the launch on its NASA+ streaming service, as well as its NASA YouTube page, starting at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). Spacec.com will simulcast this livestream on our VideoFromSpace YouTube channel, as well as on our homepage and at the top of this page.
NASA will also offer an alternative Spanish-language feed on NASA+ to chronicle the mission.
SpaceX, meanwhile, may offer its own livestream of the Europa Clipper launch atop its Falcon Heavy rocket via its X page, though the company is currently referring viewers to NASA's livestream.
From start to finish, NASA's Europa Clipper is currently expected to last nearly 10 years, with the first 5.5 years spent on the voyage to Jupiter and Europa. The launch, however, should only take just over an hour from liftoff to spacecraft deployment, followed by a six-hour process to unfold its solar arrays.
If all goes well, Europa Clipper will swing by Mars in March 2025 and then Earth in December 2026 to get gravity boosts from each planet. Those encounters will place the probe on track to arrive at Jupiter on April 11, 2030. The mission is overseen by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Once at Jupiter, the spacecraft will spend the next four years making a series of close flybys of Europa to study the moon's icy ocean with a suite of nine different instruments and an experiment, all of which are aimed at understanding the salt-water ocean beneath the moon's surface. A radar will probe the depths of that ocean, while other instruments will measure vast water plumes detected on Europa by the Hubble Space Telescope. And, of course, there's the camera images Clipper will take of Europa, NASA officials said.
"While we're not going to search for other life, Europa could have the ingredients for life as we know it: water, organics, chemical energy and stability," Free said. "What we discover Europa will have profound implications for the study of astrobiology and and how we have how we view our place in this universe."
While its primary mission is due to end by June 2034, it is possible NASA may extend the Europa Clipper mission beyond that year depending on the health of the spacecraft.
Below is a look at the launch countdown and timeline for deployment of Europa Clipper from its Falcon Heavy rocket. Unlike past Falcon Heavy launches, SpaceX will not attempt to recover the first stage or side boosters on this flight in order to get as much performance from the boosters as possible. Europa Clipper is the size of a tennis court with its solar arrays unfurled, making it NASA's largest planetary probe yet, SpaceX said.
"Falcon Heavy is giving Europa Clipper its all, sending the spacecraft to the farthest destination its ever sent, which means the mission requires the maximum performance so we won't be recovering the boosters tomorrow," Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX's director of NASA science missions at SpaceX, told reporters Sunday. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't think of a better mission to sacrifice boosters for, for we might have an opportunity to discover life in our own solar system. How cool is that?"
If SpaceX is unable to launch NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft on Oct. 14, the company does have at least two more chances this week.
SpaceX's first backup launch date is on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 11:59 a.m. EDT (1559 GMT), with weather forecasts calling for a 95% chance of good conditions at launch time, according to the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron. If SpaceX and NASA have to wait another day, they could try to launch Europa Clipper on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 11:52 a.m. EDT (1552 GMT) as the launch window moves earlier each day. There is an 80% chance of good launch conditions on Wednesday.
In fact, NASA and SpaceX could launch Europa Clipper any day through Nov. 6 and still get the spacecraft to the Jupiter system by April 11, 2030.
"So each of the dates on the launch period end up changing the date at which we do a gravity assist at Mars and a gravity assist at Earth," said Jordan Evans, Europa Clipper project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "But other than that, all trajectories arrive at Jupiter on April 11, 2030."