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

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...

Lucy: The First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids

Lucy will be the first space mission to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. The Trojans may be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, and serve as time capsules from the birth of our solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

Lucy

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Heliocentric N/A
Mission: Robotic Exploration

Heliocentric N/A Space Launch Complex 41 Cape Canaveral, FL, USA Probability: 90%

Lucy is the first mission to explore and study Trojan asteroids. The Trojans are a type of asteroids that orbit the Sun in two groups, in front of and behind Jupiter in its orbit around our star. Since these asteroids have been in such stable orbits for billions of years, they are of great interest as remnants of early Solar System. Lucy is a NASA mission led by NASA Goddard and Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Over the course of 12 years, Lucy will fly by seven different Trojan asteroids and also one main belt asteroid. The complex trajectory to visit all targets will include several Earth gravity assists.

Updates

Nosu • Oct. 16, 2021, 11:11 a.m.

Successful launch of NASA's Lucy probe on a 12-year journey to study the Trojan asteroids.


Cosmic_Penguin • June 3, 2021, 2:46 a.m.

Added launch time


Nosu • Oct. 11, 2021, 5:42 p.m.

Launch time confirmed by ULA


Atlas V 401

Family:
Configuration: 401

An Atlas V with a 4 meter diameter fairing, no boosters and a single centaur upper stage engine.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    58.3 m
  • Diameter
    3.8 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    4.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    590.0 T
  • Thrust
    3827.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Atlas V 401
  • Family
  • Variant
    401
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Atlas V 401
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $115000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    9050.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    4950.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    6670.0 kg

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance

(ULA)

CEO: Tory Bruno Founded: 2006 Successes: 163 Failures: 0 Pending: 44

Agency Type:

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.

INFO WIKI

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