NASA Ditches SLS for SpaceX to Launch Europa Clipper - ExtremeTech

NASA’s Europa Clipper is one of the agency’s most ambitious and important missions of the coming decade.

Europa occasionally ejects plumes of water vapor into space, and the Clipper could analyze the chemical constituents of the water if it manages to fly through one.

In early 2021, Congress passed a new budget that allowed NASA to explore alternative launch options for the Clipper, and here we are with SpaceX.

The Falcon Heavy (above) has enough power to get Europa Clipper where it needs to go, and it’ll cost much less.