“Europa is the first ocean world, besides Earth, that we discovered in our solar system,” says Jonathan Lunine, the chief scientist of NASA“ Europa is the first ocean world, besides Earth, that we discovered in our solar system,” says Jonathan Lunine, the chief scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. “We need to determine whether the ocean could support life.”
A mission to bring us that understanding is now about to begin. Called Europa Clipper, this NASA spacecraft—as tall as a giraffe and with solar panels as wide as a basketball court—will launch on a [SpaceX](https://www.wired.com/tag/spacex/) Falcon Heavy rocket this month or early next. Its proposed launch date of October 10 was [pushed back](https://blogs.nasa.gov/europaclipper/) due to Hurricane Milton, and it will now launch no earlier than Sunday October 13. Two decades in the making, the [$5.2 billion mission](https://spacenews.com/europa-clipper-passes-pre-launch-review/#:~:text=Europa%20Clipper%2C%20with%20an%20estimated,to%20detect%20any%20life%20itself.) has one clear purpose: finding out if Europa ever was, or still is, habitable. The aim is to find out if some of the essential elements of life, such as carbon and nitrogen, are present in that ocean, says Lunine. “How much salt is present, and how much energy is available?”’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. “We need to determine whether the ocean could support life.”
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“Europa is the first ocean world, besides Earth, that we discovered in our solar system,” says Jonathan Lunine, the chief scientist of NASA“ Europa is the first ocean world, besides Earth, that we discovered in our solar system,” says Jonathan Lunine, the chief scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. “We need to determine whether the ocean could support life.”
A mission to bring us that understanding is now about to begin. Called Europa Clipper, this NASA spacecraft—as tall as a giraffe and with solar panels as wide as a basketball court—will launch on a [SpaceX](https://www.wired.com/tag/spacex/) Falcon Heavy rocket this month or early next. Its proposed launch date of October 10 was [pushed back](https://blogs.nasa.gov/europaclipper/) due to Hurricane Milton, and it will now launch no earlier than Sunday October 13. Two decades in the making, the [$5.2 billion mission](https://spacenews.com/europa-clipper-passes-pre-launch-review/#:~:text=Europa%20Clipper%2C%20with%20an%20estimated,to%20detect%20any%20life%20itself.) has one clear purpose: finding out if Europa ever was, or still is, habitable. The aim is to find out if some of the essential elements of life, such as carbon and nitrogen, are present in that ocean, says Lunine. “How much salt is present, and how much energy is available?”’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. “We need to determine whether the ocean could support life.”
Read more: [https://www.wired.com/story/europa-clipper-mission-nasa-jupiter-moon-exploration-signs-life/](https://www.wired.com/story/europa-clipper-mission-nasa-jupiter-moon-exploration-signs-life/)