(NASA)
The spaceship "Lucy" sent the first photo from space, which was the final stage of the initial check of all subsystems of the station after launch.
The device still has not fully revealed one of the solar panels, it is expected that an attempt to fully deploy it will take place no earlier than November 16.
Lucy was launched into space on October 16, 2021, and its goal is to study seven Trojan asteroids of Jupiter
They are located in the vicinity of the L4 and L5 Lagrange points in the Sun-Jupiter system, and one asteroid in the Main Belt.
The study of such objects will help planetary scientists better understand the processes that took place in the early solar system.
The station will study all asteroids from a flyby using four scientific instruments - two cameras and two spectrometers.
A distinctive feature of the station are two deployable circular solar panels, each 7.3 meters in diameter.
A day after the launch of the spacecraft, NASA reported that one of the batteries might not fully open.
Further analysis of the data from the ship showed that the degree of disclosure of the battery is from 75% to 95%.
It is not fixed, but it holds its position with a sling and generates almost the same level of electricity as a fully expanded battery.
The engineering team is expected to try to redeploy the battery on November 16. If this does not help, then the battery may be left in this state for the entire duration of the flight.
On November 9, the Lucy crew published the first photograph taken by the station. The picture was taken with a T2Cam and shows the starry sky.
At the moment, all scientific instruments of the ship have passed preliminary tests, and the station is in flight mode.
The first trajectory correction maneuver is expected to take place in mid-December.
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