A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Join the hosts of NASA EDGE today from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A and Hangar AE for the Psyche Rollout Show, airing live on NASA TV and YouTube at 5 p.m. EDT.
The hosts of NASA EDGE will take a unique look at NASA’s Psyche mission and the agency’s first primary launch of a spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Launch is targeted for 10:16 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 12, from Kennedy.
NASA’s longest-running video podcast, NASA EDGE provides an offbeat, funny, and informative look into NASA and its missions. You can also check out NASA EDGE on Facebook, Flickr, and X.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft stands tall atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is responsible for the insight and approval of the launch vehicle and manages the launch service for the Psyche mission. Photo credit: SpaceX
NASA will host a prelaunch news briefing today at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss the Psyche mission. NASA and SpaceX completed a launch readiness review Tuesday, Oct. 10, resulting in a “go” for launch of the spacecraft that will study a metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
The prelaunch briefing will air live on NASA Television, the agency website, the NASA app, and YouTube channel. The public may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #AskNASA.
Arlena Moses, launch weather officer, U.S. Space Force Space
Meteorologists with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 Weather Squadron are predicting a 20% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch, which is targeting 10:16 a.m. on Oct. 12 from Launch Complex 39A.
Integrated on the Psyche spacecraft is NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, the agency’s first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system.
Teams transport NASA’s encapsulated Psyche spacecraft from the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville to Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Officials from NASA, Arizona State University, and MIT will discuss the launch of Psyche and the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment during a science briefing at 12 p.m. EDT today.
The media briefing will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. The public may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #AskNASA.
Participants include:
Lori Glaze, Planetary Science Division director, NASA Headquarters
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche principal investigator, Arizona State University
Ben Weiss, Psyche deputy principal investigator and magnetometer lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Oh, chief engineer for operations, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Abi Biswas, project technologist for Deep Space Optical Communications, JPL
Also tune in to NASA Television, the agency website, NASA app, or YouTube at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 11, for a prelaunch news briefing featuring NASA senior leaders and Psyche mission managers discussing the mission.
Liftoff of the mission to the asteroid Psyche is targeted for 10:16 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 12, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 20% chance of favorable weather conditions for Thursday’s launch, with the anvil cloud, cumulous cloud, and surface electric field rules being the primary weather concerns.
SpaceX is targeting 10:16 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 12, to launch NASA’s Psyche spacecraft atop its Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche has launch opportunities through Oct. 25.
Psyche is the first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface that likely contains substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for the insight and approval of the launch vehicle and manages the launch service for the Psyche mission.
Join the conversation, follow the launch, and get Psyche mission updates from these accounts:
Technicians encapsulate NASA’s Psyche spacecraft in its payload fairings – the cone at the top of the rocket – at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Next, the spacecraft will move to SpaceX facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
In the early hours of Oct. 6, workers transported NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for launch. Earlier in the week, technicians completed encapsulation of the spacecraft, along with the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration, inside a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida.
The fairings will protect the spacecraft from aerodynamic pressure and heat during launch. After the rocket’s second stage climbs to a high enough altitude, the fairings will separate from the vehicle and return to Earth. Soon, technicians will mate the spacecraft to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in preparation for launch, which is targeted for 10:16 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 12.
Psyche will be NASA’s first primary science mission launched to orbit by a Falcon Heavy rocket, and the second interplanetary mission SpaceX has launched on behalf of NASA. NASA’s Launch Services Program certified the rocket for use with the agency’s most complex and highest priority missions in early 2023 at the conclusion of a 2.5 year effort.
Psyche’s mission is to study an asteroid that may be like Earth’s core, composed of a mixture of rock and iron-nickel metal. The asteroid offers a unique window into these building blocks of planet formation and the opportunity to investigate a previously unexplored type of world. It will take about six years for the spacecraft to arrive at the asteroid’s orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche will then spend around 26 months orbiting the asteroid at four different altitudes, the highest being approximately 440 miles and the lowest only about 40 miles above the surface, to gather information about its topography and composition as well as its magnetic and gravitational properties.
The DSOC technology demonstration, NASA’s farthest-ever test of high-bandwidth optical communications, will happen during the first two years of the roughly six-year journey to Psyche. DSOC will send and receive test data from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser, which can transmit data at 10 to 100 times the bandwidth of conventional radio wave systems used on spacecraft today. What the team learns from DSOC could support future agency missions, including humanity’s next giant leap: when NASA sends astronauts to Mars.
Technicians connect NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to the payload attach fitting inside the clean room at Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Now that fueling and testing are complete, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is ready to meet its ride – a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Launch is now targeting 10:34 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 5 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after optimizing the trajectory for the mission to study a metal-rich asteroid.
Technicians connected Psyche to the payload attach fitting at Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida. This hardware allows Psyche to connect to the top of the rocket once it’s secure inside the protective payload fairings.
Psyche’s journey through space will last nearly six years and about 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) before reaching an asteroid of the same name, which is orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe Psyche could be part of the core of a planetesimal, likely made of iron-nickel metal. The ore will not be mined but studied from orbit in hopes of giving researchers a better idea of what may make up Earth’s core.
Additionally, the Psyche spacecraft will host a pioneering technology demonstration: NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) experiment. This laser communications system will test high-bandwidth optical communications to Earth for the first two years of Psyche’s journey.
Technicians moved NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, secured for transport, into the entrance of Building 9 at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 14, 2023. This move will allow a team of technicians and engineers to load the spacecraft with xenon gas. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft took another step closer on its upcoming journey to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. On Aug. 14, a team of technicians and engineers moved the spacecraft from Building 1 to Building 9 at Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside Building 9, technicians will load about one metric ton of xenon gas into seven 22-gallon tanks inside the spacecraft.
Psyche’s solar electric propulsion will use large solar arrays to convert sunlight into electricity, which will power four Hall thrusters. The thrusters will use electric and magnetic fields to accelerate and expel charged xenon particles, or ions, to create thrust and propel the spacecraft to its destination after launch. The thrusters will operate one at a time and will have a blue glow from the xenon.
Psyche is targeted to launch Oct. 5 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. After launch, Psyche is set to arrive at the asteroid in July 2029, where it will spend 26 months gathering observations that will help scientists learn more about planetary formation.
In addition to its primary mission, Psyche has NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration onboard the spacecraft. DSOC will be the agency’s first demonstration of optical communication beyond the Moon. DSOC will send test data to and from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser, which has much higher bandwidth than radio wave systems currently used on spacecraft.
This illustration, updated in April 2022, depicts NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. The Psyche mission will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name that lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will orbit the asteroid – also shown in this illustration – for nearly two years to investigate its composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
NASA’s Psyche mission team continues to assess ongoing issues with the spacecraft’s flight software. The team is evaluating its ability to meet a schedule to launch in 2022 – the current launch period is Sept. 20 to Oct. 11. If it is determined that launch in 2022 is not possible, a full range of actions for how to proceed will be considered.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is nearing the final stages of preparations for launch, and the mission team is working to confirm that all hardware and software systems are operating correctly. An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the spacecraft is functioning as planned. The team is working to identify and correct the issue. To allow more time for this work, the launch period is being updated to no earlier than Sept. 20, 2022, pending range availability.
