Lucy, a NASA space probe, was launched on Saturday on a 12-year mission to examine Jupiter's so-called Trojan asteroids and possibly discover fresh clues about how the solar system was formed.
The unmanned spacecraft took off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:34 a.m. ET on an Atlas V rocket, embarking on a roughly 4-billion-mile journey.
The investigation is named after 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor bone remains discovered over 50 years ago in Ethiopia. The finding was named after the Beatles' 1967 song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which inspired NASA to launch the craft into space with the band's lyrics and other luminaries' messages of wisdom etched on a plaque.
One of Lucy's science tools was a disc composed of lab-grown diamonds.
In a produced video for NASA, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr paid respect to his late colleague John Lennon, who is credited with penning the song that inspired the mission.
I’m so excited — Lucy is going back in the sky with diamonds. Johnny will love that,” Starr said. “Anyway, if you meet anyone up there, Lucy, give them peace and love from me.”
Lucy will fly by one main-belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids – detritus from the formation of the solar system billions of years ago – during the next 12 years, making it NASA's first single spacecraft mission to examine so many distinct asteroids.
“Lucy embodies NASA’s enduring quest to push out into the cosmos for the sake of exploration and science, to better understand the universe and our place within it,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement. “I can’t wait to see what mysteries the mission uncovers!”
At 6:40 a.m., Lucy made its first communication to Earth. The spacecraft is currently moving at a speed of about 67,000 miles per hour on a course that will take it around the Sun and back to Earth in October 2022 for a gravity assist.
The $981 million mission is the first to focus on the Trojan asteroids, which some orbit Jupiter before it and others after it.
According to Southwest Research Institute's lead scientist Hal Levison, there's almost little danger that Lucy will be hit by asteroids while zipping by its targets because they're largely spaced far apart.
Next month, NASA is planning another mission that takes a page from the action film "Armageddon." The agency plans to launch a spacecraft to destroy an asteroid's moon as a drill in case Earth is ever threatened by a dangerous rock.
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