NASA's Clipper mission to Europa seemed doomed. Can engineers save it?

On August 27, the teams updated their progress to NASA’s top leaders, including Pam Melroy, deputy administrator, and Jim Frye, associate administrator. This time, the cells on Ms. Irvine’s chart were green from top to bottom.

Some in attendance, including Dr. Niebuhr, found this suspicious.

He thought the presenters were probably succumbing to “launch fever,” the desire to fly at any cost. He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. A month earlier, it had seemed like the mission was over. How had they made so much progress in thirty days?

Ms. Irvine explained the situation, explained what happened in each assessment, and justified each change. They tested every type of MOSFET in the spacecraft.

“We were methodical, we were rigorous, and we were confident in our results,” Ms. Irvine said.

Especially with the annealing, the flight was safe with no changes to the scientific plan. But even if they got to Jupiter and discovered unpleasant radiation surprises, the canary box, now mounted on the spacecraft, would relay the warnings back to Earth. They had so much data and so much flexibility in the system that the science requirements were met.

At the end of the meeting, Nicola Fox, the head of science missions, conducted a poll among NASA leaders: “Go” or “No.”

The agency's executives voted one by one.

He goes.

He goes.

He goes.

Until it became unanimous throughout the room.

The Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch on October 10.

After decades of effort, a powerful observer has been sent to Jupiter, capable of revealing whether Europa's ocean is habitable.

David W. Brown is Author of “The Mission” About the mission to send a spacecraft to Europe, and reported on transistor problems in Europe in July.