NASA Successfully Launches Lucy on October 16 but Discovers Issue

Credit: NASA

Credit: United Launch Alliance

NASA launched the Lucy mission on October 16 at 5:34am EDT on the Atlas V 401 rocket from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The window lasted to November 12. The rocket rolled out on October 14. The Lucy mission is really 8 missions in one because it is visiting 8 Trojan asteroids over a 12-year primary mission. Lucy will reach its first asteroid in 2027. After the primary mission is over, NASA is considering several options for a secondary mission, including going to Psyche, though it would have already been visited by the Psyche spacecraft. The name of Lucy comes from the human skeleton named Lucy from which many discoveries were made. The reason for this is that the Trojan asteroids are remains from when the Solar System was forming. Many discoveries could be made with this mission! The team discovered a potential issue on October 17. One of the solar arrays may not be fully latched. This blog post will be updated when more information about the issue is available.