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High-Gain Antenna Communications Dish

Europa Clipper’s bowl-shaped high-gain antenna faces down in this image.
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Published: September 8, 2021

Europa Clipper’s bowl-shaped high-gain antenna faces down in this image. This radio dish will allow ground controllers to send and receive commands and data between Earth and the spacecraft in Jupiter orbit — more than one million times farther from Earth than the International Space Station orbits.

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The high gain antenna for the Europa Clipper recently underwent testing. 
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Europa Clipper's large high gain antenna, which is taller than a person and is painted dark black, is hoisted on mechanical supports on a large, multi-story room that has its floor, walls, and ceiling covered in blue foam triangles to avoid interference during testing.
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An engineer removes protective plastic wrap from Europa Clipper's propulsion module.
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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Staff Engineer Yvette Tyler performs integration and testing on the electronics box for Europa Clipper’s mass spectrometer.
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Image showing Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Staff Engineer Yvette Tyler performs integration and testing on the electronics box for Europa Clipper’s mass spectrometer. The mass spectrometer will analyze gases in Europa’s faint atmosphere and possible plumes. It will study the chemistry of the moon’s suspected subsurface ocean, how ocean and surface exchange material, and how radiation alters compounds on the moon’s surface.
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Join team members from NASA’s Europa Clipper mission behind the scenes in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to learn about the design of this spacecraft that will visit Europa, an ic...
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The nadir deck for NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft. 
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The massive high-gain antenna for NASA's Europa Clipper mission is complete.
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The towering core of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is shown in the storied Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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