NASA studying solar array issue with Lucy asteroid probe

NASA's $1 billion Lucy asteroid probe is safely on its way, but engineers are studying telemetry indicating one of its two circular solar arrays may not be fully deployed and latched in place, the agency said in a blog post Sunday.

Lucy was launched from Cape Canaveral early Saturday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and released on a trajectory setting up two velocity-boosting gravity-assist Earth flybys in 2022 and 2024 to fling the craft out to a swarm of asteroids sharing Jupiter's orbit.

A third Earth flyby is planned for 2030 to send the craft to a pair of asteroids in another "Trojan" swarm in 2033.