Lucy

A deployment attempt more than a month before 2024-01-19 produced only small movement in Lucy’s second solar array.

NASA assessed that Lucy’s solar array at 98% deployed can generate enough power for the spacecraft to complete its planned mission.

NASA is suspending efforts to fully deploy a solar array on the Lucy spacecraft until at least late 2024.

A larger version of the circular UltraFlex arrays on NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission launched in October 2021 experienced a failure in which one of two circular arrays did not fully deploy and latch shortly after launch.

Lucy will perform a second Earth flyby in 2024 and will pass an asteroid in the main belt in 2025.

Lucy will fly past several Trojan asteroids leading Jupiter in 2027 and 2028.

Lucy performed a trajectory correction maneuver on 2022-06-07 to help set up the October Earth flyby.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft launched in October 2021.

Lucy’s partially deployed solar array in its current configuration is generating more than 90% of its planned power.

Lucy launched on an Atlas V rocket with a Centaur upper stage early on 2021-10-16.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner uncrewed OFT-2 test flight was postponed while ULA and NASA worked to accommodate the Lucy launch.

Lucy will perform an Earth gravity assist in October 2022 and another Earth gravity assist in December 2024.

Lucy’s thermal design protects the spacecraft from temperatures ranging from -250°F to +300°F.

An Atlas V 401 rocket launched the Lucy spacecraft on 2021-10-16 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Lucy will fly by five Trojans in the leading swarm between August 2027 and November 2028.

Lucy launched aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket that used a 4.27 m. (4-m) large payload fairing.

Lucy will perform an additional Earth flyby in December 2030 before flying by two asteroids in the trailing Trojan swarm in March 2033.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by United Launch Alliance at 5:34 a.m. ET on 2021-10-16.