Metis Supports Mission Planning for NASA’s Recently Launched Lucy Satellite

The mission planning for NASA’s Lucy satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral on October 16th, was supported by Metis’s team working on the space agency’s Deep Space Network. Lucy is the first satellite sent to study the Trojan asteroids clustered around Jupiter’s orbital path. The satellite is scheduled to visit eight total asteroids during the course of its 12-year mission.

Metis employees at the Deep Space Network have worked for nearly two years developing mission support in preparation of the launch, including supporting development sequences, creating timelines for Deep Space Network activity on the project, and producing pre-launch weather briefings. When Lucy completed its launch and started transmitting data, Metis’s team began collecting it for presentation to our colleagues at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. As Lucy goes further and further into space, Metis will continue to play this critical mission support role.

In addition to working on the Lucy satellite program, Metis’s role in supporting the Deep Space Network includes technical expertise in network infrastructure, project interface, and operations. The Deep Space Network is only one of numerous NASA projects Metis currently supports including the Space Network and Near-Earth Networks of NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation Program, NASA SPHERES, and Astrobees free-flying robots operating aboard the International Space Station, and the Multi-Mission Operation Center at NASA Ames Research Center.

For more information about the Lucy satellite, visit here: NASA, ULA Launch Lucy Mission to ‘Fossils’ of Planet Formation | NASA

Lucy launch

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