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Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

FDF Supports Europa Clipper Launch

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft silhouetted against Jupiter as it passes over the gas giant's icy moon Europa (bottom center). Scheduled to orbit Jupiter beginning in April 2030, the mission will be the first to specifically target Europa for detailed science investigation. Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft silhouetted against Jupiter as it passes over the gas giant’s icy moon Europa (bottom center). Scheduled to orbit Jupiter beginning in April 2030, the mission will be the first to specifically target Europa for detailed science investigation. Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

On October 14th 2024, FDF’s Flight Ops Analyst team provided on-console support for the Falcon Heavy / Europa Clipper launch. In support of this mission, NASA’s Near Space Network (NSN) provided TDRS services to the launch vehicle for roughly 15 minutes over the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), thereby covering Second Stage Burn #2 (SES-2), which took place out-of-view of SpaceX’s Western-Australia-based Ground Stations.  FDF provided acquisition data support for the mission, ensuring that TDRS antennas were aimed correctly to maintain communications with the launch vehicle.

The mission support was a success: All scheduled burns were completed nominally and FDF encountered no unexpected issues during support of this mission.  The FDF’s extensive planning, coordination, analysis, and systems engineering prior to launch was essential to ensuring successful mission support.