Due to Hurricane Milton approaching Florida from Mexico, SpaceX and NASA have decided to postpone the October 10 launch of the Europa Clipper interplanetary station aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch is scheduled to take place from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Image source: europa.nasa.gov
«NASA and SpaceX are canceling the launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission on Thursday, October 10, due to expected extreme conditions in the area,” space.com quoted a NASA blog announcement published on Sunday, October 6.
The blog reports that Hurricane Milton will emerge from the Gulf of Mexico this week and move east toward the Florida coast, bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall to the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island areas on Florida’s east coast.
SpaceX launch teams secured the probe, which arrived at Complex 39A on October 4th, inside a SpaceX hangar. The rest of NASA’s center staff also began preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Milton, NASA said in a blog post.
It is currently unknown when Europa Clipper will be sent into space, but NASA has plenty of time for this, since the launch window for the probe will last until November 6. If sent into space soon, Europa Clipper is expected to reach the Jupiter system in 2030, where it will be used to study Jupiter’s moon Europa. It is assumed that Europa contains a huge volume of water under an icy shell.