Lucy’s solar panel hasn’t latched—a problem for a mission powered by the Sun

Enlarge / One of the Lucy spacecraft's solar arrays, with a human for scale. (credit: NASA)

NASA's Lucy spacecraft launched safely into space early on Saturday morning from Florida, but after the deployment of its two large solar arrays, one of them failed to latch properly.

Combined, the two solar arrays have a collecting area of 51 square meters. Such large arrays are necessary because the spacecraft will spend much of its 12-year journey about five times the distance of the Earth from the Sun. Lucy's solar panels can only generate about 3 percent of the energy at a Jovian distance than they can at Earth's orbit around the Sun.

The solar panels are critical. Mission scientists say that Lucy will travel farther from the Sun, for a longer time, than any previous solar-powered spacecraft.

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