NASA spacecraft Europa Clipper, sitting aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, launched into orbit shortly after noon ET on Monday and is now on its way to investigate the potential for life on one of Jupiter’s largest moons.
The Europa Clipper launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, becoming the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary science mission, NBC News reported. Its mission is not to find life but to determine if life could exist on Europa, the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons. Scientists believe that beneath Europa’s icy surface lies a vast saltwater ocean and “chemical elements that are key ingredients to life.”
“We are looking for a habitable environment,” the mission’s deputy project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Bonnie Buratti, said. “We’re trying to look for the necessities for life, which are liquid water…
