Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Power Source for America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Has Arrived in Florida...

A solar array panel for NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft undergoes processing at Kennedy Space Center's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility in Florida...on February 27, 2024.
NASA / Leejay Lockhart

NASA’s Europa Clipper Solar Array Hoist at Kennedy Space Center (Photo Release)

Technicians hoist a five-panel solar array protected by a lid for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The arrays are each 46.5 feet long (14.2 meters).

With both solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper will span more than 100 feet long, about the length of a basketball court. The solar arrays power the spacecraft so that it can study Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, which is more than five times as far from the Sun as the Earth.

Launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is no earlier than October 2024.

Source: NASA.Gov

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A solar array panel for NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft undergoes processing at Kennedy Space Center's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility in Florida...on February 27, 2024.
NASA / Leejay Lockhart

An artist's concept of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft flying above Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
NASA / JPL - Caltech

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