Lucy spacecraft passes pre-shipment review, on track for October launch - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

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NASA and Lockheed Martin are another step closer to the launch of their Lucy Trojan Explorer mission, with the craft completing its pre-shipment review ahead of transportation to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in August

Lucy will be the first mission of its kind, set to explore several asteroids in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points. The craft is targeted to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket no earlier than October 16, 2021 at 05:35 EDT from SLC-41

Main assembly of Lucy was completed in February 2021, with teams then transitioning to thermal vacuum, vibration and shock, and electromagnetic testing

In April 2021, Lucy stretched its wings in a successful solar array deployment test. 

With those test complete, Lucy passed its pre-shipment review in July 2021 and is in processing for delivery to Cape Canaveral in August. Once at the launch site, it will undergo final testing and fueling before being placed in the Atlas V’s 4.2-meter diameter payload fairing

Following launch, Lucy will perform two gravity assist flybys of Earth in 2022 and 2024 to kick off its 12 year mission throughout the solar system. These flybys will put Lucy on the correct trajectory to intercept all seven of the asteroids it is expected to study

After completing the second Earth flyby, Lucy will be on the correct trajectory to flyby the first set of Trojan asteroids located at Jupiter’s L4 Lagrange point

However, before performing its L4 asteroid flybys, Lucy will first flyby asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson

52246 Donaldjohanson is a main-belt asteroid that’s 4 km in diameter and located in the primary asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

Although it may be used as a rehearsal, 52246 Donaldjohanson will provide valuable data on the C-type asteroid, which has been identified as a fragment of a massive collision 130 million years ago which formed the Erigone family of asteroids that 52246 Donaldjohanson is a part of. 

After performing the flyby, Lucy will coast through interplanetary space for two years before arriving at the L4 “swarm” of Trojan asteroids in 2027. 

Once at the L4 swarm, Lucy will prepare for flybys of four Trojan asteroids

The first flyby, set to take place on August 12, 2027, will bring Lucy to asteroid 3548 Eurybates

Eurybates is an interesting target as it is a C-type asteroid, which are quite rare in the Trojan families while being common in the main belt

A little over a month after its flyby of Eurybates and Queta, Lucy will flyby asteroid 15094 Polymele

Like the final two Trojans Lucy will visit, Polymele is a P-type asteroid with a low albedo, a featureless reddish spectrum, possible organic rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, and possibly water ice in its interior. 

Lucy’s flyby of Polymele will mark the first time a spacecraft has visited a P-type asteroid

Scientists currently believe Polymele may be a fragment of a collision between an object and a larger P-type asteroid

The craft will then coast through the Greek camp L4 swarm Trojans for 7 months, culminating on April 18, 2028 with a flyby of  asteroid 11341 Leucus — its 3rd L4 Trojan asteroid flyby. 

Lucy is expected to pass the 51 km diameter asteroid on November 11, 2028, a little less than six months after its flyby of Leucus

When it arrives at the L5 Trojan swarm, known as the “Trojan camp,” in 2033, it will examine its final two Trojan asteroids in a single flyby

The pair of P-type Trojan asteroids orbit one another at a separation of 680 km

In 2033, NASA's Lucy mission will perform a flyby of the binary system, after visiting 5 other asteroids

Both Trojans are P-type asteroids, similar to the L4 Trojan Polymele, which Lucy will have visited 6 years earlier at this point