"NASA's Europa Clipper: Probing for Signs of Life on Jupiter's Moon"

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest ever built for a planetary mission, is being readied for an October launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft, which will orbit Jupiter and focus on its moon Europa, is expected to leave NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory later this spring. The mission aims to gather data about Europa's ocean beneath its icy shell, map its surface composition and geology, and search for potential plumes of water vapor. While not a life-detection mission, Europa Clipper's primary goal is to determine whether Europa could support life. The spacecraft's three main science objectives are to study the moon's icy shell, investigate its composition, and characterize its geology.