The latest deep space mission of the US space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), was successfully launched form the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US state of Florida at 11:34 South African time on Saturday. The launch was conducted by an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41. The spacecraft and its mission are both named Lucy, and the aim of the operation is to fly by eight asteroids, which will make it the first probe to examine so many such bodies. These asteroids will comprise one in the main asteroid belt (which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), named Donaldjohanson, and seven so-called Trojan asteroids. The Trojans are two groups of asteroids which have the same orbit around the Sun as the planet Jupiter, one group being well ahead of the gas giant world and the other following well behind it.