Europa Clipper — NASA’s Mission to Jupiter’s Ocean Moon

This is NASA’s Europa Clipper — the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, and the most ambitious search for habitable conditions beyond Earth ever attempted. To learn about the moon Europa Clipper is going to visit, see our Europa page. For Jupiter itself, see the main Jupiter pillar.

📋 Europa Clipper — Quick Facts

• Mission typeJupiter orbiter / Europa multiple-flyby mission — 49 planned close flybys of Europa
• AgencyNASA (built by NASA JPL and Johns Hopkins APL)
• Launched14 October 2024 — Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• RocketSpaceX Falcon Heavy
• Spacecraft sizeAbout 5 m tall, with solar panels spanning 30.5 m (100 ft) when extended
• Spacecraft massAbout 6,065 kg (13,371 lb) at launch — the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission
• Mars flyby1 March 2025 — already happened
• Earth flybyDecember 2026 — currently planned for 3 December; check NASA/JPL before publishing
• Scheduled Jupiter arrivalApril 2030; exact date should be checked with NASA before publishing
• Number of close Europa flybys49 (planned)
• Total journey lengthAbout 2.9 billion km (1.8 billion miles)
• Science instruments9 — including radar, magnetometer, thermal imager, and cameras
• Named afterEuropa — Jupiter’s ocean moon

What is Europa Clipper?

Europa Clipper is a robotic spacecraft about the size of a basketball court when its solar panels are fully extended. Its mission is to study Europa — the icy moon of Jupiter that scientists think hides a huge salty ocean under its icy crust. Read about Europa here →

The spacecraft is named after Europa itself, and the mission is sometimes called the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission — because instead of orbiting the moon directly, Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and loop past Europa 49 times to study it bit by bit.

Why not orbit Europa directly? Because Europa sits inside Jupiter’s most intense radiation belts. A spacecraft in orbit around Europa would be damaged very quickly. Europa Clipper’s 49-flyby plan lets the spacecraft dart in, take measurements, and then swing back out to safer space — like dipping in and out of dangerous waters.

Europa Clipper’s three main goals

NASA designed Europa Clipper to answer three specific questions about Europa:

1. How thick is Europa’s ice?

Scientists estimate Europa’s icy crust is somewhere between 15 and 30 kilometres thick, but the exact thickness is uncertain. Europa Clipper will use a special radar called REASON (short for Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding) to “see” through the ice and measure how deep it is.

2. What is Europa made of?

Europa Clipper will study the chemistry of Europa’s surface ice, looking for the kinds of chemicals (like salts, carbon, and organic compounds) that life on Earth needs. JWST already found carbon dioxide on Europa’s surface in 2023 — Europa Clipper will study this much more closely from much nearer.

3. What does Europa look like up close?

Europa Clipper will map the moon’s surface in detail no spacecraft has ever managed. It will photograph the long dark cracks called lineae, the jumbled “chaos terrain”, and any places where the icy surface might be especially thin — places where future missions could one day sample the ocean below.

Is Europa Clipper looking for aliens?

No — and this is important. Europa Clipper is not a life-search mission. It is built to study Europa’s habitability: whether the moon has the conditions life would need to exist.

Scientists generally agree that life needs three things: water, energy, and the right chemistry. Europa already has signs of all three:

• Water — a huge salty ocean under the ice (possibly twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans combined)
• Energy — from tidal heating, as Jupiter’s gravity squeezes the moon
• Chemistry — carbon dioxide was found on Europa’s surface by JWST in 2023, possibly coming up from the ocean

Europa Clipper will check these conditions more carefully than any spacecraft before, helping scientists decide whether Europa is a place where future missions should look harder.

Europa Clipper’s nine instruments

Europa Clipper carries nine science instruments, each designed for a specific job. Together, they let the spacecraft “see” Europa in many different ways at once.

• REASON — ice-piercing radar that can look down through the icy crust and possibly find pockets of water or even the ocean itself
• ECM — a magnetometer to measure Europa’s magnetic field and help confirm the salty ocean exists
• E-THEMIS — a thermal imager to look for warm spots where the ice may be thin
• EIS — the main camera system, including narrow- and wide-angle cameras for mapping the surface
• MISE — a mapping spectrometer that studies the chemistry of Europa’s surface ice
• MASPEX — a mass spectrometer to identify any tiny particles around Europa
• Europa-UVS — an ultraviolet camera to look for plumes of water shooting from the surface
• SUDA — a surface dust analyzer to study tiny grains of Europa material kicked up by impacts
• PIMS — a plasma instrument that helps the magnetometer measure the magnetic field

Europa Clipper’s long journey to Jupiter

Jupiter is hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth, and Europa Clipper is too heavy to fly there directly. So it takes a winding route, using the gravity of other planets to give it a boost — a technique called a gravity assist.

Stage 1: Mars flyby — 1 March 2025 ✅

Europa Clipper flew just 884 km above the surface of Mars on 1 March 2025, swinging past at about 24 kilometres per second. The flyby gave the spacecraft a gravity boost and also gave scientists a chance to test important instruments, including the thermal imager and the radar — making sure both will work correctly when they reach Europa years later.

Stage 2: Earth flyby — December 2026

In December 2026 — currently planned for 3 December — Europa Clipper will swing back past Earth for a second gravity assist. This time the spacecraft will use its magnetometer to measure Earth’s magnetic field — a test that will calibrate the instrument so it works correctly at Europa.

Stage 3: Jupiter arrival — April 2030

Europa Clipper is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030 (currently listed as 11 April 2030 in mission-planning materials), after a total journey of about 2.9 billion km. Like Juno before it, the spacecraft will need to fire its engines to slow down enough to be captured by Jupiter’s gravity — a tense moment with no second chances.

Stage 4: 49 close flybys — 2030–2034

Once at Jupiter, Europa Clipper will orbit the giant planet and make 49 close flybys of Europa, getting as close as 25 km above the surface — closer than any spacecraft has ever flown to Europa. Each flyby will gather a fresh set of measurements from a slightly different part of the moon.

The cool details about Europa Clipper

The biggest planetary spacecraft NASA has ever built

Europa Clipper is enormous. With its solar panels fully extended, it measures more than 30 metres — about the size of a basketball court. The panels are this big because sunlight at Jupiter is 25 times weaker than at Earth, so they need a huge surface area to capture enough energy. The spacecraft weighed about 6,000 kg at launch — the heaviest NASA has ever sent on a planetary mission.

Built for radiation

Like Juno before it, Europa Clipper has a radiation vault — a metal box that protects its most sensitive electronics from Jupiter’s intense radiation. Jupiter’s radiation belt is the most dangerous environment for spacecraft in the solar system, and Europa Clipper has been designed to survive there for at least four years.

A poem and 2.6 million names

Engraved on the side of Europa Clipper is a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, called “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” Alongside the poem, NASA also engraved the names of more than 2.6 million people who signed up online. The spacecraft is part poetry, part science.

Engineered to be clean

Before launch, Europa Clipper was thoroughly cleaned so that tiny Earth microbes could not hitch a ride. At the end of the mission, NASA plans to dispose of Europa Clipper safely away from Europa, so that the spacecraft cannot contaminate Europa’s ice or ocean. Possible disposal targets may include Jupiter, Ganymede, or Callisto, depending on the final mission plan. Planetary protection is taken extremely seriously here, because contaminating Europa would ruin the scientific search for life there forever.

Europa Clipper, Juno, and JUICE — how they compare

Europa Clipper is one of three major modern Jupiter missions. Here’s how they fit together:

• Juno (NASA, 2011–2025) — studied Jupiter’s interior and weather from polar orbit. Read more →
• Europa Clipper (NASA, 2024–) — flying now, focuses on Europa’s habitability with 49 flybys.
• JUICE (ESA, 2023–) — flying now, focuses on Ganymede plus visits to Europa and Callisto. Read more →

Together, Juno, Europa Clipper, and JUICE are giving scientists the best look at Jupiter’s system since the Galileo mission (1995–2003). Never before has so much been studied at Jupiter at once.

Frequently asked questions about Europa Clipper

Quick recap

• Europa Clipper is NASA’s spacecraft on its way to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa
• It launched on 14 October 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• It is the biggest planetary spacecraft NASA has ever built
• Path: Mars flyby (March 2025 ✅) → Earth flyby (December 2026) → Jupiter (April 2030)
• Will make 49 close flybys of Europa, some as close as 25 km
• Mission goal: study Europa’s habitability — water, energy, chemistry — not search for aliens directly
• Carries a poem by Ada Limón and the names of 2.6 million people