NASA’s Lucy Launches on 12-Year Mission to Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids
The New York Times
The elaborate journey of the robotic spacecraft will offer close encounters with some of the solar system’s least understood objects.
NASA embarked on a 12-year mission to study a group of asteroids on Saturday with the launch of Lucy, a robotic explorer that will meander through the unexplored caverns of deep space to find new clues about the creation of our solar system.
The 5:34 a.m. Eastern time liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance was the first step of Lucy’s four-billion mile path into the orbital neighborhood of Jupiter. There, two swarms of asteroids known as the Trojans have hid for billions of years, leftover debris from the solar system’s early formation.
The spacecraft launched before dawn, setting off toward the orbit that will begin its elaborate trajectory. Firings of the rocket’s engines preceded a final step when Lucy’s solar panels must be deployed to ensure it can produce the power it needs as it sets out on its journey.
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