WASHINGTON — NASA has added another asteroid flyby to its Lucy mission later this year that will provide a test of its capabilities for future encounters. NASA announced Jan. 25 that the spacecraft will fly by the small main-belt asteroid 1999 VD57 on Nov. 1. That is the Ethiopian name for the Lucy fossil after which the NASA mission is named. The flyby of Dinkinesh is in addition to another main-belt asteroid, 52246 Donaldjohanson, that it will fly by in 2025. NASA announced Jan. 19 that it was suspending efforts to fully deploy that solar array after the most recent deployment attempt in December showed only “minimal levels” of progress.

Source: Ethiopian News January 27, 2023 06:19 UTC