[Music]
NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans
two swarms of unexplored asteroids
trapped in Jupiter’s orbit.
Because Lucy will venture further from the Sun
than any previous solar-powered spacecraft
it is equipped with two expansive solar arrays
to carry out its deep space journey.
LAUNCH COMMENTATOR Liftoff! Atlas V takes flight,
sending Lucy to uncover the fossils of our solar system.
In the early morning hours of October 16, 2021,
Lucy rose above Cape Canaveral in a picture-perfect launch.
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.
Lucy’s cameras are not pointed at the spacecraft,
so the flight operations team could not see what had happened.
Instead, they had to work with spare equipment on the ground,
computer models, and data from Lucy to piece together
the puzzle and determine the best path forward.
After months of analysis and testing, the team
sent the spacecraft a series of carefully developed commands
to further deploy the array, stabilizing it
sufficiently for the mission to proceed.
[Music & engine audio]
Now Lucy can continue its journey
setting course for a darker region of space,
powered by the distant Sun.
[Music]
[Fade music]