NASA's asteroid-hopping Lucy spacecraft is on its way back to Earth for a Christmas-time rendezvous this year, before continuing its mission to investigate space rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
The long journey home for Lucy began when it performed the largest blast of its main engine planned for its entire 12-year mission. The spacecraft, which launched in October 2021, fired its main engines on Saturday (Feb. 3) for more than 36 minutes. The operation followed the first blast of Lucy's main engines on Jan. 31, which lasted for just 6 minutes.
