Trajectory & orbital insertion
Ascent path is a representation — true ascent telemetry isn’t public.
Provider
United Launch Alliance
Provider type
Commercial
Orbit
Helio-N/A
Mission type
Robotic Exploration
Launch site
United States of America
Date
Sat, 16 Oct 2021 09:34:00 GMT
Orbital launch #
#6137 ever
Go probability
90%
Mission
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.