Lucy

Mission Profile

Lucy is a NASA Discovery-class mission launched on 16 October 2021 aboard an Atlas V 401 on a 12-year journey to visit a record eight asteroids — one in the main belt and seven among Jupiter's Trojan asteroid populations that lead and trail the giant planet in its orbit. The Trojans are primitive bodies likely preserving pristine material from the early solar system, and Lucy's encounters will provide the first detailed measurements of multiple Trojan objects' compositions, masses, and internal structures. Named after the famous hominin fossil that illuminated human evolution, Lucy is designed to similarly illuminate the evolution of the solar system by studying these time capsules from its formation. An unexpected bonus is Lucy's planned flyby of the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh in 2023 and then the Trojan asteroid Patroclus-Menoetius binary in 2033.