UPCOMING MISSIONS
GOES-U
Launch Date: No earlier than May 2024
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon Heavy
GOES-U is the fourth and last of the next generation GOES-R series of weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The GOES-R Series of satellites (GOES-R, S, T, and U) will extend the availability of the GOES satellite system until 2039. The satellite’s mission is to acquire and disseminate environmental data from a near-equatorial Earth orbit at geostationary altitude. The satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, is based on the A2100A platform. It will have a 15-year mission lifetime (5 years on orbit storage, plus 10 years mission operations).
Europa Clipper
Launch Date: October 2024
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon Heavy
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will perform dozens of close flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to investigate whether the moon could have conditions suitable for life. Europa Clipper is not a life detection mission – its main science goal is to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.
The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make nearly 50 flybys of Europa at closest-approach altitudes as low as 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.
Europa Clipper will follow a Mars-Earth Gravity Assist (MEGA) trajectory and will travel for five and half years and arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. Europa Clipper will be the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. The spacecraft will be about 16 feet (5 meters) in height. With its arrays deployed, the spacecraft spans more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) and has a dry mass (no propellant in the tanks) of 7,145 pounds (3,241 kg).
