Europa Clipper Advances on 1.8-Billion-Mile Journey to Study Jupiter's Moon

NASA's Europa Clipper mission, launched on October 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, is currently 20 million km from Earth and has begun deploying its instruments. The spacecraft will travel over 2.9 billion km, performing flybys of Mars and Earth before reaching Jupiter to conduct detailed studies of its moon Europa. Key components like solar arrays and a magnetometer boom have been successfully deployed, with more instruments to be activated in the coming weeks. The mission aims to explore Europa's potential for harboring life.