The transport carrier containing the five-panel solar arrays for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. The arrival completes the solar array journey which began in Leiden, Netherlands, where Airbus workers assembled them before shipping them by barge to Port of Miami in Florida and transporting them by truck to Kennedy. The solar arrays will attach to the spacecraft to power it on the 1.8-billion-mile journey to study Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is no earlier than October 2024.
ATLOAirbusAssemblyEuropaEuropa ClipperFalcon HeavyJPLJet Propulsion LabJupiterKSCKennedy Space CenterLSPLaunch Services ProgramMoonNASANational Aeronautical and Space AdministrationPHSFPayload Hazardous Servicing FacilitySpaceXTestand Launch Operationsarrivalicy mooninternal oceanrocketsolar arraysspacecraftJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory APL