NASA has endorsed the last improvement phase of the Southwest Research Institute-drove Lucy mission investigate the Trojan asteroids in anticipation of its October 2021 dispatch.

The space organization’s endorsement follows free surveys of the shuttle, instru-ments, timetable and budget. This achievement, known as Key Decision Point-D (KDP-D), speaks to the official progress from conclusive plan and manufacture (Phase C) to frameworks conveyance, testing, assembly and coordination (Phase D).

During this piece of the crucial’s cycle the structure and manufacture of the rocket is finished, and the instruments are incorporated into the shuttle and tried. The shuttle will at that point be sent the following summer to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for mix with the dispatch vehicle.

“Each phase of the mission is more exciting than the last,” said Lucy Principal Investi-gator Dr. Hal Levison of SwRI. “While, of course, Lucy still has several years and a few billion miles to go before we reach our real goal—exploring the never-before-seen Trojan asteroids—seeing this spacecraft come together is just incredible.”

Assembly, Testing and Launch Operations (ATLO) started on time at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado.

“We’ve had to revise the ATLO schedule to give components affected by COVID-19 re-strictions a bit more time before they will be integrated onto the spacecraft,” says Lucy Payload Deputy Project Manager John Andrews, of SwRI. “Through a lot of hard work and ingenuity, the Lucy team was able to start ATLO as planned on August 10, and we are on schedule to ship the spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center as planned next July.”

The oxidizer tank has been coordinated with the shuttle, and the instruments will be conveyed to Lockheed Martin beginning in October. All rocket get together and testing will happen at the Colorado office in anticipation of the dispatch window opening on Oc-tober 16, 2021.

After dispatch, Lucy will in any case have a long way forward flying out to the distance of Jupiter to make close fly-bys past a record-breaking number of asteroids.

The rocket will experience the first of its eight focuses on, a main belt asteroid, in 2025. Lucy will arrive at the first of seven Trojan space rocks in 2027 and fly past the last double pair in 2033.

Lucy’s next significant milestone is the Mission Operation Review booked for October 2020, which surveys the task’s operational availability and its encouraging towards dispatch. Around then, the mission will show that its route, planning, com-mand and science tasks prerequisites are finished.