Yesterday, I marked the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing by attending a tour at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory...which I haven't visited since before the pandemic in early 2019!
The main reason why I went to JPL this time around was to see the Europa Clipper in person. Technicians inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility are working around the clock to get this robotic probe completed as soon and efficiently as possible.
You can watch the technicians work on Europa Clipper via this live webcam! The unmanned explorer will launch on a six-year journey to Jupiter in October of 2024—courtesy of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.
It was also great visiting the Space Flight Operations Facility again...as well as seeing full-size replicas of the Perseverance Mars rover, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter and the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) that may or may not send rock samples to an orbiting Martian spacecraft for return back to Earth. Read this latest article about the Mars Sample Return mission to know why I'm not so optimistic about the MAV becoming a reality.
The Europa Clipper should be transported to Cape Canaveral in Florida between May and July of next year to be prepped for launch to Jupiter. I plan on seeing this spacecraft in person one last time before it leaves Southern California...
Whether or not this will be through another tour or the JPL open house (a.k.a. Explore JPL) itself remains to be seen! Happy Friday.
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