Workhorse Rocket to Launch Lucy to Trojan Asteroids

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with NASA's Lucy spacecraft is on the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is on the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA

The rocket standing ready on the pad with NASA’s Lucy spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, is a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 configuration. It is the workhorse of the Atlas V fleet, delivering about half of all Atlas V missions to date. The 401 designation means this rocket has a payload fairing, or nose cone, that is approximately four meters wide, a common core booster with no solid rocket boosters, and a Centaur upper stage with a single engine.

This is the 81st mission of an Atlas rocket, and the 100th mission from SLC-41.

Booster propulsion is provided by the RD-180 engine system, a single engine with two thrust chambers. The RD-180 burns Rocket Propellant-1 (RP-1), a highly purified kerosene, along with liquid oxygen, providing 860,200 pounds of thrust at liftoff. Tanking began this morning at 3.

The booster is controlled by the Centaur second stage avionics system, which provides guidance, flight control and vehicle sequencing functions during the booster and Centaur phases of flight. The single-engine Centaur upper stage is a cryogenic vehicle, fueled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The two-piece payload fairing that protects the Lucy spacecraft tops the vehicle.

Stay tuned here for launch countdown coverage and at www.nasa.gov/live beginning at 5 a.m. EDT.