NASA craft blasts off to the moon of Europa

NASA launched the Europa Clipper on Monday—a spacecraft with the sole mission of observing Jupiter’s moon of the same name. Scientists believe that Europa holds all the ingredients necessary for life, the agency said. While much smaller than Earth, the planet does have much more water and is covered by ice. Scientists have speculated about life forms like microbes being on the planet since discovering the ice in the 1970s.

In a mission estimated to cost $5.2 billion, the Clipper will travel nearly two billion miles to reach Jupiter. NASA expects the spacecraft to arrive at the gas giant in April 2030. The craft will then orbit the planet, observing Europa each of the 49 times it’s expected to pass by the moon.

Has anything else happened with space flight recently? Elon Musk’s SpaceX conducted a safe landing of its so-called Super Heavy booster, the private space company said Sunday. The landing occurred within minutes of the rocket leaving the launch pad. It was the space company’s first attempt at landing the booster back at its launch point, according to a SpaceX statement. The booster looked great after the landing, Musk said. He noted that it only suffered from slight issues such as warped engine nozzles the company could easily fix. He called the event a major step toward making life multi-planetary. The rocket’s payload, Starship, achieved orbit before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

Dig deeper: Listen to Bonnie Pritchett’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how scientists are preparing for an eventual trip to Mars.