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Mission record

Europa Clipper

Also known as EuropaClipper, Europa Multiple-Flyby Mission

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Active · Active

NASA mission launched on 14 October 2024 and designed to go into an orbit around Jupiter that will allow multiple close flybys of its moon Europa, to determine whether Europa has conditions suitable to support life. It is taking a Mars Earth Gravity Assist trajectory whose Mars assist was flown on 1 March 2025; NASA's mission page calls it an Active Mission and gives an arrival at Jupiter in April 2030, after which it is to conduct 49 close flybys of Europa; NSSDCA's page adds that it will also fly by Ganymede and Callisto as part of its orbit-shaping maneuvers.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Falcon Heavy
Launch site
Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center
Countries
United States
Mission types
Orbiter, Flyby

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launch on a Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A

    Europa Clipper lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on Oct. 14, 2024, and the launch/orbital page prints a Launch Date/Time of 2024-10-14T16:06:00Z. NSSDCA names the Launch Vehicle Falcon 9 Heavy where NASA writes SpaceX Falcon Heavy, and gives the Launch Site as Cape Canaveral, United States; the record follows NASA and the disagreement is recorded rather than resolved.

    Earth

  2. Gravity assist

    Mars gravity assist

    On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper streaked about 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface of Mars for what's known as a gravity assist. The mission's primary goal in flying by Mars was to use the planet's gravitational pull to reshape the spacecraft's trajectory, and the pass also carried a dry run of the radar instrument. NSSDCA's page gives the same date and still describes the assist in the future tense: 'Europa Clipper will take a Mars Earth Gravity Assist (MEGA) trajectory, with the Mars assist on 1 March 2025'.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Europa Clipper · Spacecraft · Active Mission

    Destinations: Jupiter, Mars

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 3, 2026