A Poem for Europa by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

The poem, titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” connects two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored. The poem is engraved on the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The animation features Limón’s own voice and handwriting.

The poem was released on June 1, 2023, for NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign, which invites people around the world to sign their names to the poem. The poem and participants’ names will travel 1.8 billion miles with the Europa Clipper spacecraft on its path to the Jupiter system.

Europa Clipper is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in October 2024, and by 2030, it will be in orbit around Jupiter. Over several years, it will conduct multiple flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to determine if the moon has conditions suitable for life.

To read the poem, send your name to Europa, and create your own customizable souvenir artwork go to: go.nasa.gov/MessageInABottle

For more information on the mission go to: https://europa.nasa.gov/.