{"id":1138627,"date":"2021-10-16T11:49:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T15:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/?p=53867"},"modified":"2021-10-16T11:49:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T15:49:25","slug":"nasa-asteroid-explorer-leaves-planet-earth-on-atlas-5-rocket","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/plato-data\/nasa-asteroid-explorer-leaves-planet-earth-on-atlas-5-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA asteroid explorer leaves planet Earth on Atlas 5 rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Bound for a pristine population of ancient asteroids, a NASA science probe named Lucy took off from Cape Canaveral before dawn Saturday and rocketed into space on top of an Atlas 5 launcher to begin a 12-year, $981 million mission seeking out clues about the early solar system.<\/p>\n
The mission takes advantage of a unique alignment between Earth and the Trojan asteroids, groups of objects leading and trailing Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. The trajectory will take the Lucy spacecraft near eight asteroids from 2025 until 2033, more than any other mission.<\/p>\n
The probe will be the first to visit the Trojan asteroids, which were trapped in two swarms as Jupiter settled into its current orbit around the sun. Scientists believe the Trojan asteroids are primordial leftovers from the early solar system. Similar objects collided or clumped together to form the giant planets of the outer solar system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we think of them are as fossils, which is why we named the Lucy spacecraft after the human ancestor fossil known as Lucy,\u201d said Hal Levison, principal investigator for the Lucy mission at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cThis is going to tell us how the giant planets formed and how they moved around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucy will target asteroids in the Trojan swarms that range in size from less than a mile to more than 60 miles. The spacecraft will also fly by asteroids that appear to have color differences in ground-based observations, a sign that they might have different compositions.<\/p>\n
After a problem-free overnight countdown, the robot explorer blasted off from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT) Saturday.<\/p>\n
Lucy took off at the opening second of a 23-day planetary launch period, hitting a schedule set nearly a half-decade in advance.<\/p>\n
\nLiftoff of NASA\u2019s Lucy asteroid mission on an Atlas 5 rocket, beginning a 12-year journey to explore a population of ancient asteroids. https:\/\/t.co\/tVHTSswphM<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/tN4ZSlUAHQ<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) October 16, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Riding a Russian RD-180 engine, the 188-foot-tall (57-meter) launcher arced downrange east from Cape Canaveral over the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlas 5 flew Saturday in the rocket\u2019s basic configuration, without any strap-on solid rocket boosters.<\/p>\n
The rocket\u2019s kerosene-fueled first stage shut down and jettisoned to fall into the Atlantic around four minutes into the mission, leaving a Centaur upper stage to complete a pair of burns using its U.S.-made RL10 engine supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne.<\/p>\n
The first RL10 firing placed the Lucy spacecraft into a parking orbit around Earth. About 40 minutes into the mission, the engine reignited for a six-minute burn to accelerate the probe to the require velocity to escape Earth\u2019s gravitational grasp.<\/p>\n
The Atlas 5\u2019s flight sequence appeared to go off without a hitch, and the rocket released the Lucy spacecraft about 58 minutes after liftoff. About a half-hour later, ground teams announced the probe completed deployment of its twin fan-shaped solar arrays, each with a diameter of about 24 feet (7.3 meters).<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network station in Australia acquired the first signals from the Lucy spacecraft about the same time, confirming the probe was functional after riding to space on the Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s launch marked the 89th flight of an Atlas 5 rocket, and the third Atlas 5 flight of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, the spacecraft is looking good,\u201d Levison told Spaceflight Now after the launch Saturday. \u201cThe solar arrays, that was our big concern. They\u2019re producing the power they should be producing. So that seems healthy. It\u2019s on its way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fully unfurled, the solar arrays cover an area of about 548 square feet, or 51 square meters, making Lucy\u2019s solar wings the largest ever sent to deep space. The structures give the Lucy spacecraft a wingspan of more than 52 feet, or 16 meters.<\/p>\n
\nNASA confirms the Lucy spacecraft\u2019s circular solar arrays have unfurled after this morning\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n
This will allow the spacecraft to charge its batteries to begin the trek to the Trojan asteroids.https:\/\/t.co\/tVHTSswphM<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sBnd5OzvIY<\/a><\/p>\n