NASA has announced that the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter and its moon Europa will be launched by SpaceX using a Falcon Heavy vehicle. The total contract award is for $178 million. The competing vehicle was NASA’s SLS. The estimated cost of the SLS launch would have been $2 billion.

The SLS has not flown yet, but the Falcon Heavy has several successful launches to its credit.

UPDATE—

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

—Everett Dirksen