ANIMATION – Shortly after Lucy launched, one of its solar arrays failed to fully deploy, putting the mission at risk.
NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans, two swarms of asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit. Lucy made a picture-perfect launch in October 2021, but when the spacecraft began to unfurl its solar arrays, it encountered an anomaly. One of the arrays failed to fully deploy and latch shut, putting the mission at risk. For months, the flight operations team worked to address the issue – allowing Lucy to continue its journey to the Jupiter Trojans.
This artist concept animation depicts Lucy’s solar array anomaly. Learn more.