On Oct. 14, NASA’s groundbreaking Europa Clipper mission launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Falcon Heavy’s 27 Merlin engines and single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine sent Europa Clipper on a trajectory out of the Earth-Moon system at a speed of approximately 35 km/s relative to the Sun.
Over a month and a half into its mission, Europa Clipper is around 20 million km from Earth. Following its separation from the Falcon Heavy upper stage and initial communications and health checks, teams began working to deploy Europa Clipper’s suite of instruments. Thus far, two instruments have been deployed and will stay deployed throughout the rest of the mission, as well as a number of spacecraft elements needed for operations in space.