Atlas 5

NASA is ready to launch a $981 million mission to the distant reaches of the solar system Saturday, kicking off a 12-year expedition to visit a group of unexplored asteroids that may offer clues to help scientists decipher how the planets formed more than 4 billion years ago.

The final Atlas rocket assigned to launch a solar system exploration mission is set for liftoff before dawn Saturday. NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission is mounted on top of the rocket awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The 188-foot-tall Atlas 5 rocket crowned with NASA’s Lucy asteroid probe rolled out to its launch pad Thursday at Cape Canaveral. These aerial views, captured by a drone and released by NASA, show the launch vehicle moving along rail tracks to Space Launch Complex 41.

An Atlas 5 rocket emerged from its hangar and rolled to a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Thursday with NASA’s Lucy asteroid probe. The launch of the Lucy spacecraft Saturday will mark the final planetary science mission in the storied history of the Atlas program.

United Launch Alliance rolled out its next Atlas 5 rocket Thursday to a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, moving the launcher into position for blastoff Saturday at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT) with NASA’s Lucy mission, a robotic spacecraft to explore the Trojan asteroids in the outer solar system.

Ground teams are stepping through testing of three small CubeSats launched with the Landsat 9 remote sensing satellite last month, preparing the small spacecraft for exoplanet observations and communications experiments. NASA says engineers have not established contact with another CubeSat designed for space weather research.

Teams at Cape Canaveral transferred NASA’s Lucy asteroid explorer to a United Launch Alliance integration building Thursday and mounted the robotic science probe atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff later this month, using a booster originally built to send astronauts into space.

Set for launch Oct. 16 on a flight to explore asteroids in the outer solar system, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has been fueled and encapsulated inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket. Watch as Chris McCaa, a manager from spacecraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin, points out some of the features of the probe.

Fueled up for a 12-year mission of exploration, NASA’s Lucy science probe is nearly ready for launch Oct. 16 from Florida’s Space Coast to begin a journey through the solar system to visit eight asteroids, a record number for a single mission.