SpaceX wins NASA contract for mission to Jupiter’s moon

SpaceX has been awarded a NASA contract to provide launch services for a mission to investigate Jupiter’s moon, Europa. 

NASA announced the $178 million contract award on Friday. The mission will take place on a Falcon Heavy rocket and will use equipment to determine if the icy moon could sustain life.

The mission is set to take place in October 2024 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

“Key mission objectives are to produce high-resolution images of Europa’s surface, determine its composition, look for signs of recent or ongoing geological activity, measure the thickness of the moon’s icy shell, search for subsurface lakes, and determine the depth and salinity of Europa’s ocean,” NASA stated.

SpaceX has been working with NASA on multiple missions taking cargo up to the international space station since 2019 as well as astronauts since last year.

The latest cargo run was from SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which took sea creatures into space.