NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Arrives at Launchpad

Kennedy Space Center, FL. – This morning, October 14, 2021, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 emerged from the Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex 41 located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V made the slow roll to the launch pad bringing the Lucy spacecraft one step closer to launch. The launch is currently scheduled for October 16, 2021 at 5:34 AM EDT.

On September 29, 2021, Lucy was in final preparations at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida before its transition to Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex 41.

The Lucy spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, was named after the fossilized skeleton of an early hominid (pre-human) ancestor that was discovered on the continent of Africa in the nation of Ethiopia in 1974. The paleoanthropologists who made this incredible find named this discovery "Lucy."

Lucy will be the first spacecraft to be traveling to the Trojan asteroids. These are small celestial remnants of our early solar system that are trapped in stable orbits that are clustered in two "swarms" that lead and follow Jupiter in it's orbit around the sun. The mission is planned to take 12 years and seeks to unlock the mysteries of our solar system, its formation and the origin of the planets.

Learn more about the Lucy mission from NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index

Follow the mission science with the Southwestern Research Institute: http://lucy.swri.edu 

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Atlas V / NASA Lucy Asteroid Mission (Michael Howard)

September 30, 2021

Michael Howard

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