Hurricane Milton’s Imminent Landfall Officially Delays NASA Mission to Jupiter

NASA’s Europa Clipper, a ngo acceptable to probe Jupiter’s icy moon, volition nary longer motorboat connected Thursday owed to a Category 5 hurricane making its mode towards Florida.

The spacecraft’s motorboat model opens October 10 and remains unfastened until November 6. The Europa Clipper was expected to motorboat connected the 10th, but the unexpected accelerated improvement of Hurricane Milton means the motorboat is officially postponed. In a release, NASA stated that the probe and the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket which volition motorboat it into abstraction are safely secured successful a Kennedy Space Center hangar. NASA did not instantly authorities a revised motorboat day for the spacecraft.

Hurricane Milton is presently northbound of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, charting a northeasterly people towards Tampa, Florida. The tempest rapidly accrued successful intensity; it lone became a hurricane yesterday and it ramped up from a Category 1 tempest to a Category 5 tempest successful astir 7 hours. That intensification gait puts the tempest down lone Hurricane Wilma (2005) and Hurricane Felix (2007) successful the grounds books.

Category 5 storms are the astir aggravated connected the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, which classifies storms based connected upwind speed. A Category 5 tempest is 1 with winds greater than 157 miles per hr (253 kilometers per hour). You tin larn much astir Hurricane Milton here.

Not yet airborne, the Europa Clipper can’t look to drawback a break. The mission, which volition outgo astir $5.2 cardinal astatine the extremity of its lifecycle, suffered a setback successful July erstwhile engineers realized parts of the spacecraft weren’t equipped to grip the aggravated radiation successful the Jovian system. Specifically, transistors which assistance electrical travel successful the spacecraft needed to acquisition further investigating to corroborate they would proceed to relation successful the look of charged particles flying astir Jupiter and its moons.

The probe was yet cleared for motorboat connected September 10, a period to the time from the spacecraft’s projected launch. Of people the squad did not expect a Category 5 tempest to beryllium headed towards Florida, but specified is the terms of doing concern successful a peninsular authorities that has the lukewarm waters of the Gulf of Mexico connected 1 broadside and the Atlantic Ocean connected the other.

A outer representation of Hurricane Milton’s well-defined eye, arsenic seen by the GOES-19 satellite. Image: NOAA

“The information of motorboat squad unit is our highest priority, and each precautions volition beryllium taken to support the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, elder motorboat manager astatine NASA’s Launch Services Program, successful the NASA release. “Once we person the ‘all-clear’ followed by installation appraisal and immoderate betterment actions, we volition find the adjacent motorboat accidental for this NASA flagship mission.”

Kennedy Space Center announced connected societal media this day that the installation is inactive open, but is successful a HURCON III status, its hurricane preparedness presumption that involves securing facilities, property, and instrumentality 48 hours anterior to sustained 50-knot winds.

Meanwhile, Milton has besides interrupted suborbital flights; the Tampa International Airport and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airports announced they would adjacent tomorrow, successful anticipation of the storm’s landfall.

The October 10 motorboat model has been scrapped connected the mission’s website, which outlines 1 three-hour motorboat model per time done the extremity of the month. Should it motorboat successful that window, the Europa Clipper is slated to scope the Jovian strategy successful April 2030. It volition marque 80 orbits of Jupiter and 49 flybys of Europa, which is thought to incorporate a salty h2o water nether its icy crust, making it a compelling venue for astrobiology: the survey of beingness beyond Earth.