The rocket experience for NASA’s bold Lucy asteroid mission rolls out to start pad
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s newest asteroid probe, named Lucy, rolled out of to the launch pad nowadays (Oct. 14) ahead of its planned Saturday morning liftoff.
Just right after 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT), the Atlas V rocket created by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) began its 1,800-foot (550 meters) journey from its vertical integration facility, in which it was stacked, to the launch pad at Room Start Intricate 41. The rollout took close to an hour, and still left the 188-foot-tall (57.3 m) rocket perched atop its pad right until launch day. Developed by Lockheed Martin, the 3,300-pound (1,500 kilograms) Lucy spacecraft is established for start on Saturday (Oct. 16), which is the initially chance in a prepared 23-day launch time period that will kick off the spacecraft’s 12-calendar year trek via the solar method.
Lucy will fly by a total of 8 distinctive asteroids (7 Trojans, which are situated forward of and guiding Jupiter in its orbit, and one principal belt) in order to enable researchers greater recognize how the solar technique advanced. Researchers believe that the Trojans are perfectly preserved cosmic time capsules and hope that learning them could shed much more light-weight on how the large planets fashioned.
Associated: NASA’s daring Lucy asteroid mission is completely ready to launch
On start day, Lucy will have a 75-minute launch window that opens at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT). It will trip to area atop one of ULA’s most simple Atlas V rockets, the 401, which depends on a single-motor Centaur upper phase and does not use solid rocket boosters.
Lucy’s rocket was originally intended to ferry Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on an uncrewed exam flight to the Intercontinental Space Station, but after teams found out a valve issue in the capsule’s propulsion procedure, groups were compelled to mail the craft back again to the manufacturing unit to troubleshoot the concern that flight is now expected to start in 2022.
So the rocket was reassigned to Lucy. In purchase to guidance that mission, groups at ULA had to remove the rocket’s twin-motor Centaur higher phase as nicely as the strap-on strong rocket boosters that have been made to propel the Starliner capsule into place. A distinctive Centaur upper stage with a solitary RL10 motor was set up on the rocket’s very first phase in advance of the spacecraft’s integration.
“It was unfortunate that OFT-2 experienced its malfunctioning valve challenges way late in the sport,” Omar Baez, start director for Lucy at NASA’s Launch Products and services Program at Kennedy Room Center reported during a prelaunch information convention on Sept. 28. “And thankfully, we were being capable to take lemons and make lemonade out of it.”
This mission will mark the 89th launch of an Atlas V rocket and the 100th mission to fly from ULA’s pad (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Area Force Station. At present, climate officers at the 45th House Delta predict a 90% likelihood of favorable disorders for start, with the only induce for problem getting the potential for cumulus clouds.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Abide by us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s newest asteroid probe, named Lucy, rolled out of to the launch pad nowadays (Oct. 14) ahead of its planned Saturday morning liftoff.
Just right after 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT), the Atlas V rocket created by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) began its 1,800-foot (550 meters) journey from its vertical integration facility, in which it was stacked, to the launch pad at Room Start Intricate 41. The rollout took close to an hour, and still left the 188-foot-tall (57.3 m) rocket perched atop its pad right until launch day. Developed by Lockheed Martin, the 3,300-pound (1,500 kilograms) Lucy spacecraft is established for start on Saturday (Oct. 16), which is the initially chance in a prepared 23-day launch time period that will kick off the spacecraft’s 12-calendar year trek via the solar method.
Lucy will fly by a total of 8 distinctive asteroids (7 Trojans, which are situated forward of and guiding Jupiter in its orbit, and one principal belt) in order to enable researchers greater recognize how the solar technique advanced. Researchers believe that the Trojans are perfectly preserved cosmic time capsules and hope that learning them could shed much more light-weight on how the large planets fashioned.
Associated: NASA’s daring Lucy asteroid mission is completely ready to launch
On start day, Lucy will have a 75-minute launch window that opens at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT). It will trip to area atop one of ULA’s most simple Atlas V rockets, the 401, which depends on a single-motor Centaur upper phase and does not use solid rocket boosters.
Lucy’s rocket was originally intended to ferry Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on an uncrewed exam flight to the Intercontinental Space Station, but after teams found out a valve issue in the capsule’s propulsion procedure, groups were compelled to mail the craft back again to the manufacturing unit to troubleshoot the concern that flight is now expected to start in 2022.
So the rocket was reassigned to Lucy. In purchase to guidance that mission, groups at ULA had to remove the rocket’s twin-motor Centaur higher phase as nicely as the strap-on strong rocket boosters that have been made to propel the Starliner capsule into place. A distinctive Centaur upper stage with a solitary RL10 motor was set up on the rocket’s very first phase in advance of the spacecraft’s integration.
“It was unfortunate that OFT-2 experienced its malfunctioning valve challenges way late in the sport,” Omar Baez, start director for Lucy at NASA’s Launch Products and services Program at Kennedy Room Center reported during a prelaunch information convention on Sept. 28. “And thankfully, we were being capable to take lemons and make lemonade out of it.”
This mission will mark the 89th launch of an Atlas V rocket and the 100th mission to fly from ULA’s pad (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Area Force Station. At present, climate officers at the 45th House Delta predict a 90% likelihood of favorable disorders for start, with the only induce for problem getting the potential for cumulus clouds.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Abide by us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.