Europa Clipper and JUICE are set up to give scientists game-changing information about the potential habitability of Jupiter’s moons. While both missions will gather data on multiple moons, JUICE will spend time orbiting and focusing on Ganymede, and Europa Clipper will make dozens of close flybys of Europa.

NASA's Europa Clipper launches toward Jupiter's moon, Europa, on a mission to explore its icy surface and potential for life.

A NASA spacecraft has blasted off on a quest to explore Jupiter's moon Europa and reveal whether its hidden ocean might hold the keys to life.

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft successfully launched Monday afternoon from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s east coast. The mission marks the first time scientists will explore Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, which is widely considered the most likely place beyond Earth to have life right now.

Coverage of the launch is expected to begin at 11 a.m. ET and will be added to this story in the video player above. The launch window itself is set to open at 12:06 p.m. ET.

NASA’s Europa Clipper craft was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket, aiming to conduct its first mission to study Jupiter’s icy ocean moon Europa.

On Monday4, NASA launched a massive interplanetary spacecraft on a 6-year journey to Jupiter. Once in the Jovian system, NASA’s Europa Clipper will perform several dozen flybys of the icy moon Europa,