When will NASA launch Europa Clipper? What to know about long-awaited mission to Jupiter's moon

NASA's long-awaited mission to send a spacecraft to scour Jupiter's moon Europa for signs of extraterrestrial life appears to be back on track after Hurricane Milton forced a delay.

Before the deadly storm made landfall Wednesday on Florida's already storm-battered western coast, the U.S. space agency made the call to delay the launch of the Europa Clipper from Cape Canaveral. Now that Milton has plowed its way out of the state and into the Atlantic Ocean, teams at NASA have been able to get back to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center to assess the extent of the damage.

Once the Europa Clipper takes off, ahead of the uncrewed spacecraft is a six-year journey to the Jupiter moon Europa, where the massive orbiter will get an unprecedented glimpse of an ocean world that scientists believe could harbor life.

Here's everything to know about NASA's flagship mission and when to expect it to launch.

Europa Clipper: NASA plans for launch life-searching mission to Jupiter moon

Hurricane Milton forces NASA to scrub launch

Before Milton tore a path of destruction through the Florida Peninsula, the Europa Clipper had been on track for an Oct. 10 launch.

While the storm, which made landfall at Category 3 strength and left at least 16 people dead, didn't directly hit the Space Coast on eastern Florida, it still brought heavy rain and high winds to the region. In fact, Milton's predecessor Helene similarly forced NASA to scrub another rocket launch two weeks prior.

After a series of weather-related delays, the Crew-9 mission finally managed to launch Sept. 28 with a pair of astronauts to the International Space Station on a vehicle that will eventually bring the Boeing Starliner crew back to Earth. However, the Crew-8 team they'd been sent to relieve has been unable to return to Earth because of delays sparked by Milton.

Ahead of Milton, NASA made the call to delay the Clipper launch as teams secured the spacecraft in a hangar at Launch Complex 39A before it had been integrated with a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The move came Sunday, Oct. 6 before the integrated rocket would have been rolled to the launch pad and raised to a vertical position ahead of its launch window opening Thursday.

When will the Europa Clipper launch?

Now that the brunt of Milton has passed, teams have returned to the spaceport to ensure it's safe for launch crews to return and continue preparations. The facilities at the Kennedy Space Center, including Launch Complex 39A, will also be assessed for storm damage, NASA said.

While NASA said launch opportunities are available as early as Sunday, Oct. 13, the agency indicated the window is open until Nov. 6. If the mission were to launch Sunday, NASA's preset liftoff time is 12:12 p.m. ET.

NASA lists a full table of potential launch windows on its website.

Why are scientists interested in Europa?

The fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons, Europa is an icy celestial body teeming with enigma and intrigue.

Though Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s own moon and barely one-quarter the diameter of Earth, beneath its surface is a vast salty ocean twice the size of Earth’s own oceans combined. Scientists have long theorized that the icy crust above the ocean conceals evidence of organic compounds and energy sources – ingredients that are the stuff of life.

Scientists have long been intrigued by the moon's surprising lack of large impact craters that lend it a notably smooth surface, especially relative to the other icy moons.

What is the Europa Clipper mission?

If the conditions to support life do indeed exist on Europa, then NASA is hoping the Clipper will be able to discover them.

Astronomers believe ocean worlds such as Europa are common outside of our solar system, so studying the icy moon could prove to be the first step to understanding how life could exist beyond Earth. But NASA officials have been clear on one point: The Clipper is not looking to find life itself; just the conditions that could support it.

Six spacecraft have visited and imaged Europa since it became one of the first moons found beyond Earth.

Among vehicles that have visited the moon are NASA’s Pioneer 10 and 11, which flew by Jupiter in the early 1970s, as well as the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in 1979. NASA's Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016.

The Clipper's impending trip to Europa represents the most ambitious attempt to image the moon since the Galileo mission conducted imaging in the 1990s. Galileo's imaging revealed reddish-brown cracks slicing the surface that scientists hope to better understand when the Clipper arrives.

During the course of 49 close flybys of Europa, the Clipper will gather and relay data to help scientists determine, for instance, the subsurface's salinity and how deep the water is. The Europa Clipper's flybys will cover both hemispheres of the moon, the closest of which will be at an altitude of 16 miles above Europa's surface, NASA says.

When will the Clipper reach its destination?

Engineers have been hard at work readying the spacecraft to endure both a launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as well as the harsh conditions of the vacuum of space, NASA officials have said.

Ahead of the spacecraft is a 1.8 billion-mile journey to Europa on a trajectory taking it past Mars and then Earth, using the planets’ gravity as a slingshot to add speed for the trek. After journeying for more than five years, the Europa Clipper will fire its engines to enter Jupiter's orbit in 2030.

What to know about the Clipper spacecraft

With its massive solar arrays and radar antennas, the Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.

Bigger than a basketball court, the spacecraft extends 100 feet from one end to the other and is about 58 feet across. With no propellant in the tank, the Europa Clipper weighs about 7,145 pounds.

The orbiter's solar arrays alone, which need to be huge so they can collect enough sunlight while near Jupiter to power the craft, measure about 46.5 feet long and about 13.5 feet high.

Though mission engineers plotted orbits to limit the Clipper's time amid Jupiter's most intense radiation, the spacecraft was also designed with a thick-walled vault made of titanium and aluminum to shield sensitive electronics.

On board, the Europa Clipper will carry nine observational instruments, including cameras needed for high-resolution imaging and an ice-penetrating radar to search for the subsurface water. The instruments, which will also study the moon's geology and atmosphere, will operate simultaneously on every pass so that scientists can layer the data together to paint a full picture of the moon.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Europa Clipper: When will NASA mission to Jupiter's moon launch?