A milestone, not a flyby
NASA reported on October 28, 2026, that Lucy has reached the region of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. Its first encounter with Eurybates is scheduled for August 11, 2027. Those are separate milestones: reaching an area of space and passing close to a particular object.
What entering the region means
The Trojans share Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun, but they are not clustered right beside the planet. Engineers track Lucy through radio signals and images of stars; the region has no physical boundary like a city entrance. The milestone is therefore better understood as a stage of the journey than arrival at a destination.
How to follow the mission
When following the next updates, distinguish the spacecraft’s trajectory, an encounter and the release of images. An announcement about its position does not yet provide the detail that a close flyby will reveal.
The photograph accompanying this story shows Lucy’s launch in October 2021. It recalls the start of the mission, rather than representing what its cameras see now. Keeping that distinction clear prevents a striking picture from being mistaken for new evidence.
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