A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket flared to life under the cover of dark at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just …
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket flared to life under the cover of dark at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just after 2:30 a.m. local time Saturday morning. Encased within the pencil-shaped payload fairing atop the rocket was NASA’s latest interplanetary explorer: A spacecraft named Lucy. It was the 100th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41. Approximately 58 minutes after launch the probe, which is about as wide as a bus, was released from the second stage rocket booster to begin its long journey toward Jupiter’s orbit. The United Launch Alliance team celebrated with hugs and clapping in its mission control room. „It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life,“ Hal Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission, said post-launch. „It was truly awesome, in the old-fashioned meaning of the word.“ Over the next two years, Lucy will use Earth’s gravity twice to swing toward the solar system’s largest planet. But the gas giant isn’t Lucy’s destination. Instead, it’ll explore a series of asteroids, locked in Jupiter’s orbit, known as the Trojans. These asteroids have never been studied up close before and move as huge swarms, or camps, at the „Lagrangian points“ in Jupiter’s orbit. The Lagrangian points are regions where gravity’s push and pull lock the camps in place, leading and trailing Jupiter in its journey around the sun in perpetuity.
