A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Lucy spacecraft aboard is seen in this 2 minute and 30 second exposure photograph as it launches from Space Launch Complex 41, Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

At around 6:55 a.m. EDT, Lucy will first be visible to observers on the ground in Western Australia (6:55 p.m. for those observers). Lucy will quickly pass overhead, clearly visible to the naked eye for a few minutes before disappearing at 7:02 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft passes into the Earth’s shadow. Lucy will continue over the Pacific Ocean in darkness and emerge from the Earth's shadow at 7:26 a.m. EDT. If the clouds cooperate, sky watchers in the western United States should be able to get a view of Lucy with the aid of binoculars.

The public is invited to join the #WaveToLucy social media campaign by posting images of themselves waving towards the spacecraft and tagging the @NASASolarSystem account. Additionally, if you are in an area where Lucy will be visible, take a photograph of Lucy and post it to social media with the #SpotTheSpacecraft hashtag. Instructions for observing Lucy from your location are available here.

I have hunted high and low online but have found precisely nothing about the encounter other than that brief video. No still images, no data on the encounter, nothing. It's as if a total news blackout has been implemented.

I have two questions:

1. Can anyone more skillful in online searching find anything up-to-date about the Donaldjohanson encounter, specifically images showing the whole asteroid?

2. Why would there be no publicly-available updates on a NASA asteroid mission? Is this one of those ridiculous proprietary-interest situations where publicly-funded investigators withhold information from the people who pay their salary? (I acknowledge that I'm not a U.S. taxpayer, but clearly U.S. taxpayers aren't being told either.)

Imagine it's 1989: Voyager 2 has just flown past Neptune. NASA releases two or three images, then there is a total news black-out. Three months after the encounter the public has seen nothing since those first two or three images. I think that would have been considered very odd indeed.

So why the total news blackout after that 5-second asteroid encounter video? I hasten to add that I'm not suggesting anything sinister: no "alien base on Donaldjohanson" nonsense. I just want to know why NASA considers it either (a) unnecessary; or (b) undesirable to release any more information about this asteroid encounter.

If you Google "NASA Lucy Mission" you will be treated to a report about the encounter as a future event that has not yet happened. How does NASA expect to get young people interested in space exploration if it refuses to tell people what its spacecraft are doing?