Jamie Groh
Mar 12, 2024
On March 6, specialists working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and completely extended the very first of 2 five-panel solar varieties for the company’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Each solar variety procedures 46.5 feet in length. For the operation, the group suspended the solar variety on a gravity offload support group that assists support the weight of the solar range while it’s here in the world. Up next, specialists will start checking and cleaning up as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. Planned to reach Jupiter in April 2030, the objective will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which reveals strong proof below its icy crust of a worldwide ocean over two times the volume of all Earth’s oceans. The spacecraft will deliver to Florida later on this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Southern California in preparation for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky