Europa Clipper is on its way to Jupiter’s moon Europa, where there is probably an ocean beneath the surface.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is on a nearly six-year, 3 billion-kilometer (1.8 billion-mile) mission to find out whether conditions on Jupiter’s moon could support life in what scientists believe is a deep ocean hidden by its icy surface.

The spacecraft launched Monday aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from a NASA facility on Florida’s east coast.

The launch was delayed by several days due to the impact of Hurricane Milton on the launch site in Florida.

The launch also came a day after SpaceX launched its fifth Starship test flight from Texas, bringing the launch vehicle back to land for the first time.

Europe’s hidden ocean

Europa is one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, and scientists think it could have an ocean up to 120 kilometers (80 miles) deep hidden beneath a thick sheet of ice on its surface.

In 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered what appeared to be geysers erupting from the surface of Europa. Europa is the largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons and was discovered by the Italian astronomer Galileo in the early 17th century.

Now scientists want to take a closer look at possible thermal springs on the seabed. These vents could potentially support life and provide a powerful source of energy.

“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” program scientist Curt Niebur told The Associated Press.

Equipped with huge solar panels, the Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has built to explore another planet. It’s about the size of a basketball court and has a budget of $5.2 billion.

Take a closer look

This is not NASA’s first mission to Jupiter, but it is said to be the first mission to conduct a detailed study of Europa. The spacecraft will fly closer than previous missions, at a distance of about 25 kilometers (nearly 16 miles).

After orbiting Jupiter, it will fly close to Europa 49 times before ending the mission in 2034 with a planned crash into Ganymede, another Jupiter moon.

In the 1970s, the Pioneer spacecraft and two Voyager missions provided the first detailed photos of Europa from a distance.

Since then, NASA’s Galileo and Juno spacecraft have also come close enough to capture images of the moon.

The spacecraft has nine scientific instruments, including radar to see beneath the ice and cameras that map virtually the entire moon.

One of the challenges the Clipper faces in reaching Europa is passing through Jupiter’s radiation bands, which requires special protection for the instrument controls housed in thick aluminum and zinc walls.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice space probe, which was launched last year, is also on its way to Jupiter.