NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26 at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The high gain antenna of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft takes center stage in this photo, captured at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5.
With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.
The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.
Learn more about NASA’s Psyche mission to a metal-rich asteroid from the people who are leading the science investigation and the engineering that will make it happen.
“The team and I are now counting down the days to launch,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Our focus has shifted to safely completing the final mechanical closeout of the spacecraft and preparing the team for operations. The team is conducting numerous training activities to ensure that we are prepared and ready. It’s a very busy time, but everyone is very excited and looking forward to the launch.”
Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy (the first interplanetary launch for that rocket) from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. PDT) on Oct. 5, with additional opportunities scheduled through Oct. 25. After escaping Earth’s gravity, the Psyche spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to asteroid Psyche.
Get the Latest JPL News
Measuring about 173 miles (279 kilometers) at its widest point, the asteroid Psyche presents a unique opportunity to explore a metal-rich body that may be part of a core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend at least 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.
But first, a team of 30 or so engineers and technicians will wrap up the assembly, test, and launch operations phase of the mission. The team recently finished several weeks of functional testing of the science instruments as well as the spacecraft hardware and software.
After removing the last of the cables that snake around the hardware for testing, they’ll “close out” the spacecraft by reinstalling some exterior panels that had been removed for access and complete the thermal blanketing. Later in July, they will integrate and test the deployment of the enormous solar arrays. Then, in mid-August, a crew will begin slowly loading all 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of propellant – the neutral gas xenon – onto the spacecraft over the course of a couple weeks.
Luis Dominguez, the systems and electrical lead for assembly, test, and launch operations, is usually based at JPL but has been working full time at the Cape since early June. “We are moving forward,” he said, “and we’re confident that when we’re on the pad, we’ll be ready to hit the button. For all of us, we’ll be excited to launch this bird.”
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
JPL also is providing a technology demonstration instrument called Deep Space Optical Communications that will fly on Psyche in order to test high-data-rate laser communications that could be used by future NASA missions.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/psyche
and
https://psyche.asu.edu/
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-6215
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2023-097
Asteroids and Comets .
New Video Series Reveals What Drives NASA’s Psyche Mission Team
Solar System .
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Gets Final Payload for Moon Water Hunt
Solar System .
NASA’s Europa Probe Gets a Hotline to Earth
Mars .
Watch NASA Engineers Put a Mars Lander’s Legs to the Test
Mars .
NASA InSight Study Finds Mars Is Spinning Faster
Mars .
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Flies Again After Unscheduled Landing
Asteroids and Comets .
Huge Solar Arrays Permanently Installed on NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft
Mars .
NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle Continues Progress Toward Mars Sample Return
Solar System .
NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause
Solar System .
NASA’s Juno Is Getting Ever Closer to Jupiter’s Moon Io
Event Sept. 21, 2023 .
Solar Eclipses: Your Guide to the 2023/2024 Celestial Events
Event Aug. 24, 2023 .
SunRISE: Studying Space Weather with SmallSats
Image .
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Gets a Taste of Space
Image .
Europa Clipper Gets Its High-Gain On
Image .
Lunar Trailblazer Spacecraft Nears Completion
Image .
Europa Clipper’s High-Gain Antenna Installed
Image .
Powerful Antenna Installed On Europa Clipper
QUIZZES .
Space Trivia
Image .
VERITAS Science Team Members Begin Iceland Campaign
Image .
NASA’s Psyche: Solar Arrays Stowed for Launch
JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.