NASA’s Lucy mission on schedule for launch

NASA is on schedule to launch spacecraft Lucy in October 2021 after completing a major milestone of assembly, test and launch operations for the mission at the end of July.

As the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids, a population of small bodies orbiting the sun “leading” and “trailing” Jupiter, Lucy will be the first space mission in history to explore different destinations in independent orbits around the sun with flyby encouragers past eight different asteroids.

"No one anticipated that we would be building a spacecraft under these circumstances," Lucy Principal Investigator Hal Levison told NASA in a press release. “But, I once again have been impressed by this team's creativity and resiliency to overcome any challenge placed before them."

The Systems Integration Review, a four-day virtual meeting from July 27 to 30, ensured segments, components and subsystems, scientific instrumentation, electrical and communication systems and navigations are on schedule to be integrated into the system.

The meeting also confirmed that facilities, support personnel, plans and procedures are on schedule to support the integration.

On July 31, the team was virtually briefed on the results by the standing review board.

NASA and partner institutions delayed construction on a portion of the instruments and components to ensure the safety of the team during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allowing the Lucy assembly, test and launch operations (ALTO) team to reorder the assembly and testing timeline, the team developed a new schedule to give components and subsystems the flexibility needed to ready the spacecraft for an on-schedule launch.

“Successful completion of this System Integration Review means that the project can proceed with assembling and testing the spacecraft in preparations for launch,” NASA said in the press release. “The spacecraft is on track to begin ATLO next month at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems facilities in Littleton.”

Lucy’s Key Decision Point-D (KDP-D), scheduled for late August of this year, will occur after the project has completed a series of independent reviews covering technical health, schedule and cost of the project.

The Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado is the principal investigator institution for Lucy, partnering with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland to provide mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance as Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colorado, builds the spacecraft.