NASA’s Lucy spacecraft swoops past first of 10 asteroids on long journey to Jupiter

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey out to Jupiter. The spacecraft on Wednesday zoomed past the pint-sized Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. Lucy came within 270 miles of the asteroid, testing its instruments in a dry run for the bigger and more alluring asteroids ahead. The asteroid is just a half-mile across, quite possibly the smallest of the space rocks on Lucy’s tour. Wednesday’s flyby caps what NASA is calling Asteroid Autumn. NASA returned its first asteroid samples in September. Then in October, it launched a spacecraft to a metal-rich asteroid named Psyche.