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.

NASA launched a spacecraft from Florida on Monday on a mission to examine whether Jupiter's moon Europa has conditions suitable to support life, with a focus on the large subsurface ocean believed to be lurking beneath its thick outer shell of ice.

For the first time, we are sending a spacecraft to explore an alien ocean world—a moon that might host life today