Lucy Liftoff

Shown is a view of the Vehicle Assembly at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Oct. 16, 2021 – in the early-morning hours on the day of the Lucy mission. A United Launch Alliance V 401 rocket roared off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on at 5:34 a.m. EDT, carrying NASA’s Lucy spacecraft into space. During its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Lucy is the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids, which hold vital clues to the formation of our solar system.