NASA's largest-ever planetary spacecraft is due to launch next month

The spacecraft is approximately 5 m tall and measures over 30.5 m in width with its arrays fully extended.

Transcript

00:00We scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20 years.

00:19We've been working to build it for 10 years.

00:21It's going to be another 10 years because Jupiter is so far away until we have all the

00:26science in the bag.

00:28And so it really is a very long-term investment and quest.

00:33And I'm really proud that as humanity that we choose to undertake these difficult and

00:40long-term goals, things like exploring the unknown out of Jupiter.

00:58So what we learned with Clipper and the habitability of Europa, this is going to pave the way for

01:08the future, for future missions to Europa and elsewhere in our solar system where we

01:13can search more directly for life.

01:19I first got an email from the Library of Congress that said, would you be interested in having

01:26a meeting with NASA?

01:28And we all sat down here at the library and an incredible Zoom call where I learned all

01:36about the Europa Clipper and Europa, the second moon of Jupiter.

01:42And at the end of the call, they asked me if I would be interested in writing a poem

01:46that would travel on the spacecraft Europa Clipper to Europa.

01:57NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

01:58California Institute of Technology