NASA's Lucy mission launched on October 16, 2021, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. At first, all seemed to be going well - Lucy was on its daring mission to explore the Trojan asteroid cluster. However, the mission quickly ran into trouble. While both solar panels are deployed, one is not fully open nor fully locked in the fully deployed position.

While the solar array is generating a lot of power, NASA is concerned that, in its current configuration, a burnout of the main engine could damage the array. So the team decided to move forward with a plan to address the problem.

NASA's Lucy mission team is working on this multi-phase effort to further deploy the spacecraft's unlocked solar arrays. On May 9, the team ordered the spacecraft to operate the array's deployment motors using both the primary and backup motor windings to generate more torque, or more pull. The motors ran as expected, further winding up the ropes that pulled apart the solar array. After the motor ran for a series of brief intervals to avoid overheating, the team paused its analysis of the results. Data from the spacecraft showed that the deployment was progressing similarly to engineering ground tests, allowing the team to move forward with the second phase of the attempt. Analysis of the data also showed that more slings still needed to be retracted. The group issued the same directive again on May 12. While this series of instructions did not completely lock the solar array, it did advance the deployment effort enough to increase the tension to stabilize the array, as had been hoped.

On May 26, the spacecraft was again ordered to deploy the solar array. As with the previous two attempts, both motor windings were run simultaneously for a short period of time to avoid overheating. Afterwards, the team analyzed the data from the event again, which again showed that the array was continuing to turn on. On June 2, the team repeated the sequence of deployment instructions for the fourth time. While the array remains unlocked, the data suggest it continued to be further deployed and hardened throughout the attempt.

The team also had several opportunities to repeat these deployment orders. While there is no guarantee that more attempts will lock the array, there is strong evidence that the process is putting the array under more tension, further stabilizing it. Even if the array doesn't end up locked, the extra boost might be enough to keep the mission going as planned.

The spacecraft completed a trajectory correction maneuver on June 7. This is the first in a series of maneuvers by the spacecraft in preparation for its first Earth Gravity Assist mission on October 16, 2022.