The faring has separated from the Atlas V and Lucy has been released for it's journey. Now the solar arrays begin to unfurl.
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Lucy Mission
779 posts
Lucy Mission
@LucyMission
@NASA's Lucy Mission is an epic journey to the Trojan Asteroids, "fossils" of the early Solar System.
Account managed by the Lucy mission team @SwRI
Joined June 2017
- Lucy has lifted off, and the crowd watching from Banana Creek, Kennedy Space Center are thrilled!
00:00 - Almost 1 week since launch and almost 2 million miles from Earth! The launch perfectly placed Lucy where it needed to be, no trajectory correction needed! Check out this nice overview of the #LucyMission by @colkin and Simone Marchi rdcu.be/czYVt
- #CountdowntoLaunch! 11 days until the start of the #LucyMission's epic voyage! In order for Lucy to explore 6 asteroid systems over 12 years, we will need to drive the spacecraft. Lucy's 5 Deep Space Maneuvers and 3 Earth Gravity Assists will keep the spacecraft on target!
00:00 - #LucyMission successful launch, separation, and solar array deployment. And a beautiful sunrise to greet the day. PI report: Lucy is far out!
- 🏠 Home, home on Lagrange! We successfully completed our burn to start #NASAWebb on its orbit of the 2nd Lagrange point (L2), about a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth. It will orbit the Sun, in line with Earth, as it orbits L2. blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/2… #UnfoldTheUniverse
00:00 - The Lucy Spacecraft is getting ready for its first #EarthGravityAssist! The solid curves show where Lucy (and the Earth) have traveled in the past year, while the dashed curves show what comes next. Lucy is currently only 9 million miles (38x the distance to the Moon) from Earth!
- This photo might not look like much, but it is one of the first images returned by the #LucyMission from space! The star field is courtesy of Lucy's Terminal Tracking Camera (T2Cam). All of Lucy's science instruments passed their preliminary tests with flying colors!
- Lucy is now about 6.5 million miles from Earth, and #DARTMission is only a bit over half a million miles from Didymos and Dimorphos! Go DART!
- At closest approach during #EarthGravityAssist, Lucy will be deep into low Earth orbit, below the current altitude of the International Space Station! Stay tuned for info about how you can #SpotTheSpacecraft from Earth if you live in Australia or western North America.
- Just hours left until the #LucyMission's first close up look at an asteroid! Check out blogs.nasa.gov/lucy for the encounter timeline and latest updates! Find links to the full story in one place here: lucy.swri.edu/DinkineshEncou…
00:00 - Replying to @LucyMissionThe left solar panel appears to have not fully deployed, but as the spacecraft is safe, stable, and power-positive there is no rush as team members work to understand the situation. The the current status can be found at :
- Set your alarm clocks! Almost go time!🚀 Tomorrow at 5:34 a.m. ET, @NASA's #LucyMission will begin its journey to the Trojan Asteroids! Tune in as we #CountdownToLaunch with live coverage starting at 5 a.m. ET. 📺: nasa.gov/live 💻: blogs.nasa.gov/lucy
