How NASA Moves a Spacecraft: Europa Clipper Arrives in Its New Home

This time-lapse video follows NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft as it moves into the storied High Bay 1 clean room from a smaller clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The multiday transport between rooms at the Lab’s Spacecraft Assembly Facility and the unwrapping and positioning of the spacecraft core required thorough planning and careful choreography. In this new location, engineers and technicians will complete assembly of the spacecraft in preparation for its launch to Jupiter’s moon Europa in October 2024. Scientists believe the ice-enveloped moon harbors a vast internal ocean that may have conditions suitable for supporting life. During nearly 50 flybys of Europa, the spacecraft’s suite of science instruments will gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – information that scientists will use to gauge the depth and salinity of the ocean, the thickness of the ice crust, and potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water int