Lucy, NACA, USA

[Airicist]

NACA

nasa.gov/lucy

Lucy on Wikipedia

[Airicist]

Lucy mission overview: journey to explore the Trojan asteroids

Jan 13, 2020

Launching in late 2021, Lucy will be the first space mission to explore the Trojan asteroids. These are a population of small bodies that are left over from the formation of the solar system. They lead or follow Jupiter in their orbit around the Sun, and may tell us about the origins of organic materials on Earth.

Lucy will fly by and carry out remote sensing on six different Trojan asteroids and will study surface geology, surface color and composition, asteroid interiors/bulk properties, and will look at the satellites and rings of the Trojans.

[Airicist]

Atlas V launches Lucy

Oct 16, 2021

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 launch vehicle launched NASA’s Lucy spacecraft to a hyperbolic orbit, from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on 16 October 2021, at 09:34 UTC (05:34 PDT). According to NASA, “The Lucy mission is the first space mission to explore a diverse population of small bodies known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record- breaking number of asteroids, flying by one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy will have three Earth flybys for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer Solar System. The Lucy mission is named after the fossilized skeleton of an early hominin (pre-human ancestor) that was found in Ethiopia in 1974 and named “Lucy” by the team of paleoanthropologists who discovered it. And just as the Lucy fossil provided unique insights into human evolution, the Lucy mission promises to revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the Solar System, including the Earth.”
Credit: NASA/Mike Downs/Bill Ingalls/Glenn Benson/Southwest Research Institute/United Launch Alliance
Atlas V launches Lucy

Atlas V, space launch system, United Launch Alliance, Centennial, Colorado, USA

[Airicist]

Launch of NASA's Lucy Mission to Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids

Oct 16, 2021

Set a reminder: Our Lucy mission is scheduled to launch on Sat., Oct. 16 at 5:34 a.m. EDT (9:34 UTC) to ancient asteroids called Trojans.

The Trojan asteroids are rocky worlds as old as our solar system, and they share an orbit with Jupiter around the Sun. They're thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. On Oct. 16, NASA's Lucy mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to explore these small worlds for the first time. Lucy was named after the fossilized human ancestor (called "Lucy" by her discoverers) whose skeleton expanded our understanding of human evolution. The Lucy Mission hopes to expand our understanding of solar system evolution by visiting these 4.5-billion-year-old planetary "fossils."

[Airicist]

The first mission to the Trojan Asteroids on This Week @NASA – October 16, 2021

Oct 16, 2021

The first mission to the Trojan asteroids, a prelaunch milestone for our Artemis I mission, and highlighting a few of our NASA centers … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!