More Snapshots of the Europa Clipper During My Second Visit to NASA JPL in 3 Months!

Earlier today, I drove down to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Pasadena, California, to pay another visit to its Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper spacecraft!

This was my second JPL tour in three months—with the main difference being that Europa Clipper now has its 10-foot-diameter (3-meter-diameter) high-gain antenna installed. Also, there weren't any technicians inside the clean room today...as mission team members were in a separate room testing the spacecraft's electrical systems from their computer workstations.

Eventually, Europa Clipper will leave the clean room to undergo environmental testing such as acoustic testing and a thermal vacuum test inside a special chamber at another location on the JPL campus.

Europa Clipper still has ways to go before it is shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida (courtesy of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft) for an October 2024 launch. Europa Clipper should be sent to Cape Canaveral by next July at the latest.

Stay tuned!