Trojan-bound in 2021: Lucy Gets a Launch Vehicle for Its Trip to Primitive Asteroids Near Jupiter...

Southwest Research Institute

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Lucy Mission (Press Release)

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC (ULS) of Centennial, Colorado, to provide launch services for the agency’s first-ever mission to explore Trojan asteroids.

The Lucy mission currently is targeted to launch in October 2021 on an Atlas V 401 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. With boosts from Earth’s gravity, the spacecraft will embark on a 12-year journey to study primitive asteroids orbiting the Sun in tandem with Jupiter.

The total cost for NASA to launch Lucy is approximately $148.3 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the ULS launch service. The Lucy spacecraft project is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Planetary Mission Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Other mission partners include Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, Lockheed Martin in Denver, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and Arizona State University in Tempe.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Cory Huston