"Finding the first confirmed example of alien life has been a goal of NASA for decades. The scientific community has narrowed its focus to a few enticing targets, and at or very near the top of the list is this strange moon that looks like nothing else in the solar system."
"This is a huge deal," said Robert Pappalardo, the project scientist for the Europa Clipper at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The Europa Clipper, weighing 13,000 pounds fully fueled at launch, is the largest space probe NASA has ever built. It will deploy a solar array more than 100 feet across, a requirement for a mission that will fly so far from the sun.
NASA officials had hoped to launch the spacecraft Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. But Hurricane Milton - the eye of which passed directly over Cape Canaveral - put everything on hold.
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