NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft main body was recently delivered via a shipping container aboard a C-17 cargo plane at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California. It was then transported by truck to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where engineers and technicians will spend the next 2-years finish assembling the craft by hand.
After assembly is complete, it will then be rigorously tested to ensure that it can withstand the long journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. The main body stands 10-feet tall and 5-feet wide, consisting of an aluminum cylinder with integrated electronics, radios, thermal loop tubing, cabling, as well as the propulsion system. With its solar arrays and other deployable equipment stowed for launch, Europa Clipper is the largest NASA spacecraft ever developed for a planetary mission. However, it may be a while until we get to view this hot Jupiter with a 4.5-day year up-close.
- Bring to life the rocket launch that took humans to the moon with the meter-high (approximately 1: 110 scale) model rocket of the NASA Apollo Saturn V
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- After building the Saturn V rocket, you can display the spacecraft horizontally with 3 stands; The Lunar Lander docks with the command and service...
It’s an exciting time for the whole project team and a huge milestone. This delivery brings us one step closer to launch and the Europa Clipper science investigation,” said Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager at JPL.
