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Permalinkhttps://spaceflightnow.com/2024/10/14/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-nasas-europa-clipper-on-falcon-heavy-rocket-from-the-kenney-space-center/
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper on Falcon Heavy
rocket from the Kenney Space Center
October 14, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket stands in launch position in preparation of
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which is set to launch on Oct. 14, 2024.
Image: SpaceX
Hot on the heels of its successful mid-air booster catch during its
Sunday Starship Flight 5 mission, SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon
Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center around lunchtime on Monday.
Onboard the three-core vehicle is NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft,
which will embark on a year’s long expedition to Jupiter’s ocean moon,
Europa. NASA believes this moon, characterized by its icy exterior and
the ocean beneath it, may contain evidence suggesting that the building
blocks for life might exist on another celestial body besides Earth.
Europa Clipper will be sent on an Earth escape trajectory to begin a
nearly six-year mission to its namesake moon. Liftoff of the mission
from Launch Complex 39A is set for 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 UTC). The launch
time can move earlier by up to 15 seconds if needed to avoid any
potential collisions wiht objects in orbit.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour and 15
minutes prior to liftoff.
This Falcon Heavy mission is a unique circumstance that will require
SpaceX to expend all three of the rocket’s boosters. In most Falcon
Heavy flights, the two side boosters are flown back to Cape Canaveral
Space Force Station after separating from the center booster, which is
not recovered.
“Falcon Heavy is giving Europa Clipper its all, sending this spacecraft
to the furthest destination we’ve ever sent, which means the mission
requires the maximum performance,” said Julianna Scheiman, Director of
NASA Science Missions for SpaceX, during a prelaunch media teleconference.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t think of a better mission to
sacrifice boosters for where we might have an opportunity to discover
life in our own solar system.”
The mission is the sixth and final flight for side booster, 1064 and
1065, will make their sixth and final launch. They both previously
supported the launches of USSF-44, USSF-67, Jupiter-3/EchoStar-24,
NASA’s Psyche and USSF-52.
Following the impacts of Hurricane Milton, the mission was originally
scheduled for Oct. 13, but NASA and SpaceX decided to delay 24 hours.
During the teleconference, Scheiman said that was due to an issue that
came up during a prelaunch mission assessment SpoaceX calls a “paranoia
scrub.”
“During that process, we encountered a quality control issue related to
our vehicle tubing. And there’s tubing on all over in different parts of
the rocket. So one of the things we have done, working really closely
with our NASA Launch Services Program team, is looked at what, what
hardware on the vehicle was set, was suspect, was needed to be evaluated
as part of this issue, and make sure that it had its necessary checks
and validation as needed,” Scheiman said.
“So basically making sure that every system went through an acceptance
test or a validation test or an additional type of inspection to make
sure that the vehicle and the hardware that’s on the pad vertical right
now is ready to fly.”
Tim Dunn, the senior launch director for NASA’s Launch Services Program
(LSP), added that SpaceX brought up the issue late last week and NASA
agreed that the issue needed further work.
“Our teams worked hand in hand for most all of Friday evening and all
day [Saturday], to get to a very confident risk posture today (Sunday)
as we went into our launch readiness reviews,” Dunn said. “So we’re in
very good shape, and we do appreciate SpaceX’s paranoia.”
A graphical representation of the launch timeline for the Europa Clipper
mission beginning at liftoff. Graphic: NASA
While the mission doesn’t involve the Federal Aviation Administration’s
commercial launch licensing process, since it’s a NASA-led mission, the
issue of the Falcon 9 upper stage anomaly that cropped up during the
Crew-9 mission did come up during the prelaunch briefing.
Scheiman said the Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage of the
rocket, which is the same used on a Falcon Heavy, burned for 500
milliseconds after the shutdown command was issued for a deorbit burn.
“That half a second of extra thrust basically made it such that the
second stage re entered the Earth’s atmosphere slowly outside of the
established zone for landing of that second stage in the South Pacific
Ocean,” she said. “On our vehicle, everything responded as it was
intended. We basically commanded a backup Merlin vacuum shutdown process
that closed the open engine’s liquid oxygen bleed valve, that
successfully shut down the MVac engine.”
NASA closely followed along with SpaceX’s analysis of the issue and said
they were confident in the conclusions reached, but also did their own
verifications to be extra sure.
“We partnered, obviously, with SpaceX because of the proximity of the
Crew-9 mission to the Europa Clipper planetary window and SpaceX brought
us quickly into that anomaly resolution,” Dunn said. “We held our own
independent engineering review board just the day after our flight
readiness review, where we assessed and cleared Europa Clipper of this
anomaly.”
A SpaceX Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch
Complex 40 (SLC-40) for the first time on the Crew-9 mission. Image:
Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now
Exploring Europa
The journey to the icy moon of Europa is something that has been in
discussion since the late 90s and was envisioned as a successor to the
Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 1997.
The National Research Council recommended a mission to Europa in 2013,
which came with an estimated cost at the time of about $2 billion. By
about 2019, mission cost estimates rose to around $4.25 billion and as
of now, the mission has a total cost estimate of $5.2 billion.
Fully fueled, the spacecraft clocks in at about 5,700 kg (~12566 lbs.)
and is powered by 28 thrusters. For a sense of scale, with its solar
panels unfurled, it is longer than a standard basketball court.
Technicians prepare to encapsulate NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft
inside SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy payload fairing in the Payload Hazardous
Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. The payload fairing will protect the spacecraft
during liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on its journey to explore
Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Image: SpaceX
Following spacecraft separation from the Falcon Heavy upper stage,
Jordan Evans, the Europa Clipper project manager, said the team will
first work to acquire the signal from the spacecraft, which will take a
few minutes. That’s followed about two to three hours of Europa Clipper
“rolling like a rotisserie to warm up [its] solar array mechanisms” and
then it will use what Evans called “thermal knives” to cut the solar
array restraints over the course of roughly 30 minutes.
“It takes about 30 minutes for the spacecraft to cut through all nine
per side. So, it does eight per side and then at about 30 minutes after
the initiation of solar array separation start, it cuts the ninth on
either side,” Evans explained. “That occurs about three to
three-and-a-half hours after launch and it will take a little while for
us to identify the state of the vehicle following solar array separation.”
NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen here on Aug. 21, 2024, in a clean room at
the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The photo was taken as
engineers and technicians deployed and tested the spacecraft’s giant
solar arrays, each of which measures about 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) long
and about 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) high. Image: NASA/Frank Michaux
The journey to Europa will take five-and-a-half years, with Clipper set
to arrive on April 11, 2030. The journey includes a Mars gravity assist
on March 1, 2025, and Earth gravity assist in December 2026.
Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science
Mission Directorate, said she is “super excited” for the mission,
stating that it’s “a very important part of our [science] portfolio, as
it will bring us one step closer to answering fundamental questions
about our solar system and our place in it.”
“Scientists believe Europa has the suitable conditions below its icy
surface to support life. Its conditions are water, energy, chemistry and
stability,” Connelly said. “To do this, we will be collecting data from
nine instruments and one science experiment. Science includes gathering
measurements of the internal ocean; mapping the surface composition and
geology; and hunting for plumes of water vapor that may be venting from
the icy crust.”
While it’s at Jupiter, Europa Clipper will make about 50 flybys of
Europa at its closest approach, which is about 25 km (16 mi) above its
surface.
Artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, with Europa and
Jupiter in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech