A NASA spacecraft is preparing to head to Jupiter and one of its 95 moons, Europa, considered one of the most promising places to discover life beyond Earth.

Europa Clipper is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:06 p.m. UK time, sitting atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

It won’t look for life itself, but instead will peer into the moon’s icy crust and determine whether conditions there could support it.

Another mission would be necessary to find the microorganisms hiding there.

Its massive solar panels make Clipper the largest spacecraft built by NASA to explore another planet.

It will take five and a half years to reach Jupiter and the detour will extend over 1.8 billion kilometers.

The spacecraft will have to pass through Jupiter’s radiation bands as it orbits the gas giant and will come within 16 miles of Europa’s surface, considerably closer than any other spacecraft.

NASA was scheduled to launch Clipper last Thursday, but the launch had to be postponed due to Hurricane Milton.