Baysgarth Blasts Off

NASA’s Europa Clipper started its long voyage to Jupiter, launching at 12.06pm on Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Europa Clipper is one of NASAs biggest spacecrafts. It is heading for Europa (a moon of Jupiter) to search for signs of an enormous subsurface ocean thought to exist beneath the moon’s icy shell. It carries with it the names of 26 million people, including Baysgarth School! The names are engraved on silicon chips that are attached to a tantalum metal vault plate. The plate is located within a drawing that depicts the Jovian system and the orbits of its four largest moons.

The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of several gravity assists. It will begin orbiting Jupiter in April 2030.