NASA set to launch mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa in search of signs of life
(NEW YORK) — Marking the latest foray into space exploration, NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa, to determine if it harbors conditions suitable to support life.
NASA’s Europa Clipper is set to launch on Oct. 10 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will be carried into orbit on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, according to the agency.
The agency will invest approximately $5.2 billion in the entire life of the mission, which spans nearly two decades, beginning in 2015 and ending in 2034, according to a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons, and planetary scientists believe this unique moon harbors a salty ocean beneath its icy crust.
NASA says the mission aims to answer the question: Does the global, subsurface ocean contain the organic compounds and energy sources necessary to sustain life?
“As an ocean world, Europa is very intriguing,” Gina DiBraccio, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said during a press briefing this month.
“This mission is going to help us to understand a complex piece of our solar system,” DiBraccio added.
NASA’s 100-foot-long and approximately 58-foot-wide Clipper probe is the largest spacecraft the agency has built for a planetary mission and will travel 1.8 billion miles to Europa.
The sizeable spacecraft was built with large solar arrays to collect enough light for its power needs as it operates in the Jupiter system, according to the agency.
The journey to Europa is long, with the flight there spanning roughly five-and-a-half years. NASA says the spacecraft will fire its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030.
Once there, the spacecraft will conduct nearly 50 flybys of the planet at “closest-approach altitudes” as low as 16 miles above the surface to gather detailed measurements of the planet’s environment, according to NASA.
Throughout the mission, the spacecraft must fly through one of the “most punishing radiation environments in our solar system — second only to the Sun’s,” according to NASA.
The reason the environment is so challenging is that Jupiter is surrounded by a magnetic field that is 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.
When the field spins, NASA reports, “it captures and accelerates charged particles, creating radiation that can damage the spacecraft.”
Because of this, the Europa Clipper is designed to shield sensitive electronics from radiation, and NASA researchers designed the spacecraft’s orbits to limit exposure to the most radiation-heavy areas around Jupiter.
If successful, the agency reports the mission will end in June 2034.
(JERUSALEM and LONDON) — Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was assassinated early Wednesday in Iran, was a longtime antagonist of Israel who rose to become leader of the Palestinian organization’s political bureau, expanded the group’s footprint outside the Gaza Strip and served as a key figure in the negotiations to end the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
He had long been accused by Western and Israeli leaders of having strong ties to the Hamas organization’s miltary wing, which claimed responsibility last year for the Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel. He had been detained by Israel in 1989 and spent three years in an Israel prison before eventually rising to the top of the Hamas group.
Haniyeh had been a part of talks as Israel and Hamas negotiated for an end to the fighting in Gaza and a return to the hostages held by Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday declined to comment on the assassination or how it may affect those negotiations, saying it was an “enduring imperative to getting a cease-fire, and what I do know is we are going to work at that every day.”
“All I can tell you right now is I think nothing takes away from the importance of, as I said a moment ago, getting to the cease-fire, which is manifestly in the interests of the hostages and bringing them home,” Blinken told reporters in Singapore.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the assassination.
Haniyeh had led Hamas political bureau since 2017
As the civil-focused Hamas branch won in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006, sweeping into power throughout Gaza, Haniyeh was named prime minister.
Israel in 2007 accused then-Prime Minister Haniyeh of “adherence to an ‘armed struggle'” against Israel. The Israeli Foreign Ministry quoted Haniyeh as saying, “We are concentrating on politics but have not abandoned our arms.”
Haniyeh was dismissed after a year in office by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, took control of the security services centers in Gaza. Haniyeh rejected the decision because he considered it “unconstitutional” and described it as hasty, stressing that “his government will continue its duties and will not abandon its national responsibilities towards the Palestinian people.”
The Palestinian Authority, another civil group in Gaza, was expelled from the territory in 2007, according to The U.S. Department of State. The U.S. described the political maneuvering by Hamas as a “violent takeover.”
Ten years later, in 2017, Haniyeh became leader of the Hamas political group, which by then was the “de facto ruler” in Gaza, the U.S. said. Members of the General Shura Council elected him in voting held simultaneously in the Qatari capital, Doha, and in Gaza.
Haniyeh when he came to power was in charge of the civil wing the of the Hamas organization, the branch that manages “charities, schools, clinics, youth camps, fundraising, and political activities,” as the U.S. State Department described it.
The following year, in January 2018, during the Trump administration, Haniyeh was placed on a U.S. government terrorism list, an official designation that named him as an individual associated with terror. His addition on that list would allow the U.S. government to block his assets under a Bush administration executive order.
“Ismail Haniyeh is the leader and President of the Political Bureau of Hamas. Haniyeh has close links with Hamas’s military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians,” the U.S. Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism said in a 2018 report.
A State Department spokesperson at the time said Haniyeh had “reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.”
Haniyeh had in the years since then called for Arab states to stop recognizing Israel by terminating agreements to normalize relations, according to a 2023 report on international religious freedom compiled by U.S. officials.
He had lived in exile since 2019 in Qatar, an Arab country that has played a key role in the Israel-Hamas negotiations.
Rise to power from a Gaza refugee camp
Born in 1963 in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, Haniyeh attended schools within and near the camp. He graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1987, obtaining a degree in Arabic literature. He received an honorary doctorate from the Islamic University in 2009, according to the school. After graduating, he worked as a teaching assistant at the university, and then took over administrative affairs after that.
Haniyeh began his activity within the “Islamic Bloc,” which represented the student arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” emerged.
Haniyeh was widely considered to be a charismatic, popular and pragmatic leader within the Hamas movement. He was respected by many Palestinians when he became the first Palestinian prime minister for the Hamas movement and he refused to leave his simple home at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas movement over the years lost dozens of its leaders in Israeli assassinations in Gaza, the West Bank and abroad, but those deaths have not appeared to weaken the movement. Israeli killed the founding and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and many top leaders in the second intifada from 2001 to 2005, but in fact did not appear to diminish the movement.
Three of Haniyeh’s sons and many of his grandchildren, in addition to other relatives, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the ongoing war with Israel broke out on Oct. 7.
ABC News’ Lauren Minore and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt on Wednesday for fresh talks on an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, and as tension with Hezbollah persists at the Israel-Lebanon border.
Here’s how the news is developing:
11,000 students killed in Gaza, education ministry says
The Palestinian Ministry of Education said Tuesday that some 11,000 students have been killed and more than 17,000 others have been injured in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s campaign there started on Oct. 7.
The ministry also said 500 schools and universities have been bombed across the territory in almost one year of war.
Islamic Jihad rocket commander ‘eliminated’ in Gaza, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said it “eliminated” the head of the Islamic Jihad militia group’s southern rocket and missile unit in a Monday airstrike on a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Ahmed Aish Salame al-Hashash was the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s rocket forces in the southern Rafah area, the IDF said in a statement. He was “an important source of knowledge of rocket fire within the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Gaza,” the IDF added.
Al-Hashash was killed while “operating inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis,” the IDF said, referring to one of the areas designated by the Israeli military as safer locations for civilians amid the devastating campaign in Gaza.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
The IDF often launches strikes inside Gaza humanitarian zones in pursuit of militant leaders.
Gaza Health Ministry identifies more than 34,300 people killed
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry published a 649-page document identifying 34,344 people killed in the strip between Oct.7, 2023 and Aug. 31, 2024.
The document includes the name, age, gender and identification number of each person killed.
The first 13 pages of the document include names of people all under 1 year old.
The document only includes the names of those the Health Ministry said it has been able to identify. Thousands more who are a part of the overall death toll are considered missing, the ministry said.
The current death toll in Gaza is 41,226 as of Sept. 16, according to the Hamas-run ministry.
Blinken to travel to Egypt
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt this week to discuss efforts to reach a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, the State Department said.
Blinken will travel to Egypt Wednesday through Friday to co-chair the opening of the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, the department said.
He will also meet with Egyptian officials “to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security,” the State Department said in a statement.
State Department doesn’t have timeline on new cease-fire proposal
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller declined to predict when a new Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal proposal might be ready.
“We continue to engage with our partners in the region, most specifically with Egypt and Qatar, about what that proposal will contain, and making sure — or trying to see that it’s a proposal that can get the parties to an ultimate agreement,” Miller told reporters Monday.
“I don’t have a timetable for you other than to say that we are working expeditiously to try to develop that proposal, try to find something that would bring both the parties to say yes and to formally submit it,” Miller added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had previously said more than a week ago that a proposal would be presented to both Israel and Hamas “in the coming days.”
Miller said Monday that — just like in the negotiations overall — the main hurdles for creating the new proposal were the security situation in the Philadelphi corridor and the number of hostages and Palestinian prisoners that would be released.
‘Trajectory is clear’ at Israel-Lebanon border: Gallant
Time is running out for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in an overnight phone call.
“Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas — the trajectory is clear,” Gallant told Austin per a readout from the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Gallant “reiterated Israel’s commitment to the removal of Hezbollah presence in southern Lebanon, and to enabling the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes,” the defense ministry said.
Cross-border fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah — which is aligned with Iran and Hamas through the so-called “Axis of Resistance” — has been near-constant since Oct. 8.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in the north of the country amid the fighting, with Israeli leaders repeatedly threatening a significant military operation to pacify Hezbollah forces operating in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Sunday statement that the “current situation will not continue. This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border. We will do whatever is necessary to return our residents securely to their homes.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Israel now says Houthi missile was hit by interceptor
A missile described by the Houthis as a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” was hit by an Israeli interceptor, Israeli military officials said Sunday, after initially saying it got through its defenses and fell in an open area.
An Israeli interceptor hit the missile fired into central Israel from Yemen, causing it to fragment, according to Israeli officials. The missile was not destroyed, but caused no damage, the Israeli officials said.
“The conclusion into the review of the surface-to-surface missile that was fired this morning is that there was a hit on the target from an interceptor, as a result of which the target fragmented but was not destroyed,” an Israeli military official said in a statement.
The Houthi movement claimed responsibility for the missile attack, claiming in a statement that it was aimed at an “important military target” in the Tel Aviv region. The Houthis claimed the missile flew some 1,267 miles in less than 12 minutes and that Israeli anti-missile defenses “failed to intercept” the weapon.
The Israel Defense Forces initially confirmed to ABC News that its defenses failed to intercept the missile but changed its conclusions upon further investigation.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
IDF: ‘High probability’ 3 hostages were killed by Israeli airstrike in November
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces released the results of its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three hostages, whose bodies were recovered from Gaza by IDF forces in December.
The three hostages — two soldiers, Ron Sherman and Nik Beizer, and civilian Elia Toledano — were killed “as a byproduct” of an Israeli airstrike on the compound where they were being held, according to the investigation. The IDF said the strike was targeting a Hamas commander, and that they believed the hostages were being held elsewhere.
“The findings of the investigation suggest a high probability that the three were killed as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike, during the elimination of the Hamas Northern Brigade commander, Ahmed Ghandour, on November 10th, 2023,” the IDF said Sunday in a statement.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Netanyahu vows to inflict ‘high price’ for Houthi missile attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against the Houthi movement after a missile fired from Yemen fell in central Israel on Sunday morning.
“This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen at our territory,” Netanyahu said before a cabinet meeting. “They should know that we exact a high price for any attempt to attack us.”
“Whoever needs a reminder of this, is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” the prime minister added, referring to Israel’s bombing of the strategic Yemeni port in July after a Houthi drone strike killed one person in Tel Aviv.
“Whoever attacks us will not evade our strike,” Netanyahu said.
(SUMY REGION, Ukraine) — Ukraine has reportedly destroyed a third and last key bridge in an area of Russia’s Kursk region, according to Russian military bloggers, inflicting a potentially significant blow on Moscow’s struggling efforts to push back Ukraine’s incursion there.
Ukraine and Russia have not officially confirmed the bridge has been destroyed.
The destruction of the third bridge over the Seym river at Karyzh would mean Russian troops on a broad stretch of the border beyond the river would now largely cut off, according to military analysts tracking the conflict.
Russian troops would be unable to receive significant re-supply or reinforcements, as Ukrainian troops move from the east, increasingly encircling them.
The reports of the destruction of the third bridge come almost two weeks after Ukrainian troops began a ground incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, marking the largest invasion of Russian territory since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have been ordered to evacuate the area, according to Russian outlets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday night hinted more clearly at the operation’s goals, saying in his nightly address that Ukraine sought to create a “buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory.”
Zelenskyy’s reference to a “buffer zone” mirrored President Vladimir Putin’s public justifications for Russia’s own offensive into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region earlier this summer, and indicated Kyiv hopes to hold Russian territory both to shield its own land and perhaps to trade in any future peace negotiations.
Zelenskyy described Ukraine’s “primary task” in its defensive operations was “to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions.”
The area that has been cut off by the destruction of the bridges is estimated to be several hundred square miles wide and may contain hundreds of Russian troops.
Ukraine methodically took out the two other bridges in the last few days, according to its Air Force.
Russian military bloggers reported that pontoon bridges were now being used to supply their forces in the area, claiming they would be sufficient, something many military analysts doubt.
The targeting of the bridges suggests that after two weeks Ukraine is still continuing to try to broaden its incursion and appears intent on digging in to hold the territory it is seizing. One goal is to potentially trade such Russian territory in any future peace talks.