NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Completes Asteroid Donaldjohanson Flyby
The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at 1:51 pm EDT on Sunday. Initial information indicates that the spacecraft is in good health. The team has commanded the spacecraft to start sending the data collected during the encounter back to Earth, a process that will take up to a week. The team will analyze the data to better understand the relatively young asteroid and to ensure that the spacecraft and team are well prepared to observe the mission’s main targets: the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, beginning in 2027.
