SpaceX Wins Contract to Launch Jupiter Moon Exploration Probe (Comprehensive)

NASA Signs $204.9 Billion Exploration Spacecraft Launch Contract
Another Successful Award Following Exclusive Lunar Lander Production Deal

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] American space exploration company SpaceX has reportedly signed a contract to launch a probe for NASA's Jupiter moon Europa exploration project. With this, SpaceX is evaluated to have secured a favorable position over other competitors by not only monopolizing the contract to produce NASA's lunar lander but also signing the Jupiter exploration contract.

According to foreign media including Bloomberg on the 25th (local time), NASA signed a $178 million (approximately 204.9 billion KRW) contract with SpaceX to launch the 'Europa Clipper' probe the day before. The Europa Clipper probe is scheduled to be launched in October 2024 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard SpaceX's heavy rocket 'Falcon Heavy.'

Europa is a celestial body known to hold a large amount of water beneath a thick ice layer and is considered one of the planets in the solar system with a very high possibility of harboring life. NASA plans to conduct extensive surface exploration through this Europa mission, including producing high-resolution images of Europa's surface, measuring geological activity traces, ice layer thickness, and the depth and salinity of the ocean.

Europa is located about 390 million miles (approximately 627 million km) from Earth, and the exploration journey is expected to take more than five years, Bloomberg reported.

With this contract, SpaceX has gained an outstanding order record compared to other competitors in the space sector. Earlier in April, SpaceX exclusively secured a $2.89 billion contract to produce the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis project.

However, concerns have been raised that the actual benefits SpaceX can gain may not be significant, as NASA's budget allocation this year is much lower than expected, and competition for contracts with other space exploration companies is expected to intensify. According to the US space media Space.com, NASA was allocated $850 million from the US government this year for lunar lander development, which is only about a quarter of the $3.4 billion NASA requested.