Lucy Spacecraft

Lucy is a NASA space probe on a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids, visiting a main belt asteroid as well as seven Jupiter trojans, asteroids which share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet. All target encounters will be flyby encounters. The Lucy spacecraft is the centerpiece of a US$981 million mission. On 4 January 2017, Lucy was chosen, along with the Psyche mission, as NASA's Discovery Program missions 13 and 14 respectively. The mission is named after the Lucy hominin fossils, because study of the trojans could reveal the "fossils of planet formation": materials that clumped together in the early history of the Solar System to form planets and other bodies. The hominid was named after the 1967 Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The spacecraft carries a disc made of lab-grown diamonds for its L'TES instrument.

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Asteroid 'Dinky,' visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft, birthed its own moon

Curious asteroid Selam, spotted by NASA's Lucy spacecraft, is a cosmic toddler

Lucy spacecraft found another asteroid behind the asteroid Dinkinesh

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Discovers 2nd Asteroid During Dinkinesh Flyby

NASA's Lucy spacecraft successfully completes 1st flyby of asteroid 'Dinky'

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Hours Away from 1st Asteroid Encounter – Lucy Mission

First Asteroid Encounter: NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Ready to Meet Dinkinesh

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is hurtling towards the tiny asteroid Dinkinesh

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Preparing for its First Asteroid Flyby

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Captures its 1st Images of Asteroid Dinkinesh

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Snaps First Images of Asteroid Dinkinesh on Its 12-Year Voyage of Discovery

Meet Dinkinesh: Asteroid targeted by NASA's Lucy spacecraft gets a marvelous name

NASA’s Record-Breaking Lucy Spacecraft Has a New Asteroid Target

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captures haunting black and white images of Earth and the Moon

Lucy spacecraft captures portrait of Earth and Moon during its trip to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.

Ahead of Gravity Assist, NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Captures Images of Earth and Moon

NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Views the Moon

Watch NASA's Lucy spacecraft streak through the skies with online broadcast

The Lucy spacecraft will slingshot around Earth on its way to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids on Sunday (October 16). The fly-by will offer watchers in Western Australia and the Western USA a chance to see it.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft About To Sling-Shot Past Earth