Live Coverage for Psyche Begins

A Psyche mission graphic is displayed on the historic countdown clock as the Sun rises at Kennedy Space Center’s NASA News Center in Florida on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soared into the sky after lifting off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13. The Psyche mission will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This is NASA’s first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration – NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment – which will be the first test of laser communications beyond the Moon.
A Psyche mission graphic is displayed on the historic countdown clock as the Sun rises at Kennedy Space Center’s NASA News Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Cory S. Huston

Good morning, and welcome to live launch coverage from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida of the mission to Psyche, a metal-rich world! Psyche is the first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface that likely contains substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice.

This also will be NASA’s Launch Services Program’s first primary science mission launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Integrated on the Psyche spacecraft is NASA’s technology demonstration DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications). Teams are on console and will soon begin to fuel the rocket at Launch Complex 39A, in preparation for the 10:19 a.m. EDT launch time. Today’s launch attempt is an instantaneous launch window. Psyche has launch opportunities through Oct. 25.

Today’s launch blog comes to you from the NASA News Center here at Kennedy. You can watch live launch coverage without commentary beginning at 9:15 a.m. EDT on the NASA Television media channel. The live launch broadcast with commentary will begin at 9:30 a.m. on the NASA Television public channel and NASA UHD channel, as well as YouTube, X, Facebook, Twitch, Daily Motion, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. You also can continue following along right here on the blog as we take you through the entire flight profile for the Psyche mission.

Join the conversation, follow the launch, and get Psyche mission updates from these accounts:

X:  @NASA@NASAJPL@NASA_LSP@NASASolarSystem@NASA_Technology@NASASCaN@NASAKennedy@NASA
Facebook: NASANASA LSPNASAJPLNASASolarSystemNASATechnologyNASASCaN
Instagram: @NASA@NASAKennedy@NASAJPL@nasasolarsystem

The Road to October 2023: NASA’s Psyche Has an Updated Mission Plan

NASA’s Psyche mission, which will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, is on track to launch in October 2023 after a one-year delay to complete critical testing. The launch period will open Oct. 5 and close Oct. 25. The asteroid, which lies in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may be the remains of a core of a planetesimal, a building block of a rocky planet.

Due to the new launch date, Psyche has a new mission plan, which includes a flyby of Mars for a gravity assist and arrival at the asteroid in August 2029. The mission then will enter its 26-month science phase, collecting observations and data as the spacecraft orbits the asteroid at different altitudes.

The redesigned flight plan gives the mission more flexibility in how the spacecraft uses its electric propulsion thrusters to reach the asteroid, move between orbits, and remain in orbit.

Unlike many other bodies in our solar system, the asteroid Psyche rotates on its side. Mission planners needed to take this unusual rotation into account as they mapped out the spacecraft’s observation orbits around the asteroid. Another challenge is that the spacecraft will reach Psyche at a different point in the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun than it would have in the previous mission plan. In the original plan, the spacecraft was to sequentially orbit the asteroid at four different altitudes, starting at the highest altitude (referred to as Orbit A) and working its way down to the lowest (Orbit D). In the new mission plan, Psyche will initially enter Orbit A, then descend to Orbit B1, then Orbit D, back out to Orbit C, and finally it will move out to Orbit B2 (the second portion of Orbit B).

This new orbital design ensures that imagers on the spacecraft will have the lighting they need during Orbits B1 and B2. The other orbits are designed to best enable the observations needed by Psyche’s Gamma Ray Neutron Spectrometer, magnetometer, and telecommunications system, which is used for the gravity science experiment.

Engineers and technicians now are completing the final verification and validation of the system-level elements of the fully integrated spacecraft. During this time, tests are performed on the spacecraft as well as in the mission’s three system test beds.

Later this spring, engineers will run a series of “day in the life” tests, when they use test beds to operate Psyche for five to seven days at a time with the same commands that they will use when it is in flight. They will run scenarios in which operations go as planned as well as when operations meet challenges.

The spacecraft is currently in a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In June, the mission begins its final assembly, test, and launch operations, and engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will return to Astrotech and work there until launch. Assembly of the spacecraft is complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers, which may be reinstalled before June. A final suite of tests will be run on the spacecraft, after which it will be fueled and then mated to the launch vehicle just prior to launch. Psyche will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, intended to test high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft.

Board Begins Review of NASA’s Psyche Mission

On July 19, Psyche’s independent review board met for the first time.

The focus is on understanding technical issues that led to the delay, how the risk of delay was or was not understood and communicated within the project, as well as to those charged with oversight of the mission at JPL in a timely manner, and the work required to ensure that Psyche is ready for a potential future opportunity.

The board’s objectives are to:

  • Study any and all issues that contributed to the launch delay, including the lack of visibility of the problems to management, standing review board, technical authorities, etc. or through standard life cycle reviews.
  • Identify when the problems began arising, why there was a lack of visibility, and determine if there were missed opportunities to take action earlier to possibly prevent the launch delay or prevent shipping to KSC and preparations for launch.
  • Identify and raise other issues that might be crucial for mission success not yet recognized by the team.
  • Identify specific corrective actions to prevent future reoccurrence of identified issues both in the Psyche replan and in other missions.
  • Identify any additional technical work the board believes is required to be completed for launch readiness.
  • Identify lessons learned associated with the acquisition strategy of a commercial bus for future NASA deep space missions.

The board is expected to brief their findings to NASA and JPL leadership in late September.