NASA secures Europa Clipper probe as Hurricane Milton sweeps over Kennedy Space Center (photos)

News
By
published

No new launch date has yet been set for the delayed mission.

a picture of a large, square building with grey-black clouds looming overhead
NASA's Kennedy Space Center as Hurricane Milton arrived on Oct. 9, 2024. (Image credit: NASA)

Editor's note: NASA announced on Oct. 11 that Europa Clipper will launch no earlier than Monday (Oct. 14). "Following Hurricane Milton, teams are continuing to do checkouts to ensure flight readiness," agency officials wrote in an update.

NASA's flagship Europa Clipper mission rode out Hurricane Milton, which swept through Florida late Wednesday (Oct. 9) and early Thursday (Oct. 10).

The Europa Clipper spacecraft and its Falcon Heavy rocket were secured inside a SpaceX hanger near their launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, agency officials stated on X, formerly Twitter.

"The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft," Tim Dunn, NASA's Launch Services Program senior launch director for Europa Clipper, said in the Oct. 9 X post, which featured a photo of Clipper inside its payload fairing, which was itself encircled by a metallic blue cage.

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft inside the payload fairing of its SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and secured against the potential wrath of Hurricane Milton. (Image credit: NASA/Europa Clipper team via X)

The $5 billion Europa Clipper mission will study the habitability of the Jupiter moon Europa, which has a huge ocean beneath its icy shell. Clipper's launch has been indefinitely delayed from the originally planned Oct. 10 due to the hurricane. The launch window extends to Nov. 6.

Related: Dragon's-eye view: Astronaut captures amazing shots of Hurricane Milton from space (photos, video)

KSC is among the thousands of businesses and other organizations across Florida with limited or no access to power in the wake of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm on the state's western coast. KSC has provided no updates since Wednesday.

"Tropical storm force winds are expected to reach the spaceport by Wednesday evening, with tornadoes possible ahead of Milton's center of approach," NASA officials wrote of KSC's status in a blog post, ahead of the storm's arrival.

RELATED STORIES:

 —  How satellite data has proven climate change is a climate crisis

— Satellite images capture Hurricane Milton intensifying into Category 5 storm (videos)

— Hurricane Milton forces NASA, SpaceX to delay Crew-8 astronauts' return to Earth

The KSC visitors center is also closed at least through today (Oct. 10), officials previously wrote on X. 

Milton's arrival is also affecting operations on the International Space Station. Crew-8, the eighth operational astronauts mission to the ISS by SpaceX, is delayed in its departure, and NASA expects to update the timing on Friday (Oct. 11). The most recent target date for departure for the four astronauts of Crew-8 was Sunday (Oct. 13).

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Elizabeth Howell
Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., was a staff writer in the spaceflight channel between 2022 and 2024 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years from 2012 to 2024. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.