SpaceX.com reported the mission as follows, “On Monday, October 14 at 12:06 p.m. ET Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Europa Clipper mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This was the sixth and final flight for the first stage boosters supporting this mission, which previously launched NASA’s Psyche one year ago and other missions USSF-44, USSF-52, USSF-67, Hughes JUPITER 3.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission with solar arrays spanning more than 100 feet (~30 meters) when deployed and weighing nearly 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms) at launch. Powered by 24 engines, Europa Clipper will make nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, surveying for conditions suitable to support life. Scientists predict a salty ocean lies beneath Europa’s icy surface which has more water than Earth’s oceans combined. It will take five years to reach Europa, with an anticipated arrival in 2030.”
NASA.gov added to the explanation as follows, “Europa Clipper is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.”
Please use the following spaceX.com link for a replay of the launch and description of the mission.