NASA’s launch window for the Lucy spacecraft opens during the early hours of Saturday, October 16.

The uncrewed spacecraft now sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket, as the science community eagerly awaits the commencement of this unprecedented mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

Lucy won’t head directly for the Trojans, as it needs to make two passes of Earth, the first in 2022 and the second in 2024, for the extra gravitational boost.

For this $981 million mission, Lucy won’t be going anywhere near Jupiter.

The Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun in two loose but discernible clumps, one in front of Jupiter’s orbital path and the other behind.

Lucy has a big job ahead, as it will visit one asteroid in the Main Belt between Jupiter and Mars and seven Trojan asteroids.

Starting in 2027, Lucy will visit Eurybates and its binary partner Queta, followed by Polymele, Leucus, Orus, and the binary pair Patroclus and Menoetius.

The spacecraft will likely remain operational after that, and it may even visit some more asteroids.

Read this “52-foot-long probe will visit asteroid Donaldjohansen in the Main Belt” as Davidjohansen, leading me to one day hope that humans could visit other Jupiter Trojan Asteroids like Richardhell, Tomverlaine and Stivbator