A NASA spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a quest to explore Jupiter’s tantalizing moon Europa and reveal whether its vast hidden ocean might hold the keys to life. It will take Europa Clipper 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter,

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.

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.