NASA’s Europa Clipper is well on its way to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, set to arrive in 2030. While its science instruments remain dormant for now, its star trackers are actively working, snapping images of distant stars to help orient the spacecraft.

Three months after its launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter's orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras.

Three months after its launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter's orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras.

NASA shared the image on Wednesday captured by Europa Clipper which launched on October 14, 2024 to Jupiter. The picture features stars captured by Clipper's star tracker cameras in early December. These stars are used as reference points to let the mission team know about the spacecraft's orientation in space.