NASA's Lucy Mission Flyby of Asteroid Dinkinesh

NASA's Lucy spacecraft will flyby asteroid Dinkinesh (previously known as 1999 VD57) on November 1, 2023. This asteroid flyby was added to Lucy's list of targets in January 2023. The primary purpose of the Dinkinesh encounter is to test the spacecraft's Terminal Tracking System, which will keep Lucy's instruments pointing at the asteroid as it flies by at 10,000 miles per hour.

Lucy is on a record-breaking mission to explore 10 asteroids in the Trojan asteroids, two swarms of asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun. The Dinkinesh flyby will be the spacecraft's first asteroid encounter, and it will also be the smallest main belt asteroid to have ever been well imaged by a spacecraft.
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