Lucy Instruments

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of unexplored asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit. Lucy made a picture-perfect launch on October 16, 2021, but when the spacecraft began to unfurl its solar arrays, it encountered an anomaly. One of the arrays failed to fully deploy and latch shut, putting the mission at risk. For months, Lucy’s flight operations team worked meticulously to address the issue and put Lucy back on its solar-powered journey to the Jupiter Trojans.Learn more about the effort to address Lucy’s solar array anomaly. Shortly after Lucy launched, one of its solar arrays failed to fully deploy, putting the mission at risk. Complete transcript available.Universal Production Music: “Hypervelocity” by Sophy Olivia PurnellWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index)

Lucy is the first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, leading and trailing the giant planet by sixty degrees. These primitive bodies are thought to be the “fossils” of planet formation, trapped by Jupiter’s gravity at the dawn of the solar system. Now, NASA is sending Lucy on a winding, twelve-year-long path to visit one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans. Lucy will provide the first up-close look at these mysterious objects, helping scientists to better understand the evolution of the solar system.Learn more about Lucy’s path to eight asteroids.Asteroid Ryugu imagery provided by: JAXA Hayabusa 2 Explore Lucy’s journey to one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans.Complete transcript available.Universal Production Music: “Ocean Simulation” “Tale of Time” by Markus GleissnerWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index)