Lucy spacecraft prepares for second asteroid encounter

NASA prepares for Lucy spacecraft's second close encounter with an asteroid

NASA spacecraft Lucy is just days away from its second close encounter with an asteroid. Lucy was launched in 2021 and is on its way to Jupiter’s orbit to explore a group of asteroids known as the 10 Trojans. The spacecraft has to pass through the solar system’s main asteroid belt to get to Jupiter’s orbit, which is more than 5 times further from the Sun than Earth’s orbit. The asteroid belt is between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on average …

Lucy spacecraft prepares for second asteroid encounter

NASA's Lucy spacecraft is six days and less than 50 million miles (80 million km) away from its second close encounter with an asteroid; this time, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.

NASA’s Lucy prepares for second asteroid flyby on the road to Jupiter

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is closing in on its second close encounter with an asteroid, expected to happen on April 20, 2025. This pass marks another key step in a long journey that began in 2021 and will continue for years as Lucy travels toward a rare set of asteroids sharing Jupiter’s orbit. The mission aims to study the Trojans—primitive leftovers from the solar system’s early days. Before reaching those distant targets, Lucy is flying through …

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Gears Up for Historic Asteroid Encounter

In an exciting new chapter for NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, the spacecraft is now just days away from its second asteroid flyby. On April 20, 2025, Lucy will closely approach Donaldjohanson, a small asteroid located in the main asteroid belt. This encounter marks a major milestone in Lucy’s mission to explore the solar system’s Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter’s orbit. As NASA’s Lucy mission prepares for this crucial event, the spacecraft’s team…

NASA’s Lucy Mission to Explore Asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA’s Lucy Mission to Explore Asteroid DonaldjohansonNASA’s Lucy Mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans—an unexplored population of asteroids considered to be the fossils of planetary formation. Along the way, Lucy is traveling through the main asteroid belt, on course to fly past 52246 Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. The asteroid was named in honor of the paleoanthropologist who discovered the Lucy fossil in 1974, rewriting the textbooks …

NASA's Lucy probe is 6 days away and less than 80 million kilometers from its second close encounter with a space rock: the small asteroid in the main belt Donaldjohanson.