The spacecraft is targeted for launch on October 12th aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. Its destination, a metal-rich asteroid, could tell us more about how planets form.
Within 24 hours, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche, aimed at the mysterious asteroid of the same name, is NASA’s first science mission to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The launch is set for Thursday, October 12th at 10:16 a.m. EDT, with additional opportunities being identified daily through October 25th. Each opportunity occurs instantaneously. That is, the exact time when the launch takes place he only once a day.
“The team has been working tirelessly to prepare the spacecraft for a unique journey to the asteroid,” said Henry, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.・Mr. Stone said. “All spacecraft systems, science instruments, and software have been integrated and extensively tested, and the spacecraft is fully configured for flight. We look forward to launch, but even more importantly Above all, we look forward to achieving our mission objectives as we begin once again our historic voyage of scientific discovery.”
The orbiter’s solar array will be folded and stowed during launch. All systems have been tested and retested multiple times, along with three scientific instrument payloads. Packed with 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of the neutral gas xenon (the propellant that propelled Psyche to the asteroid belt), the spacecraft will be mounted inside the launch vehicle’s conical payload fairing and will maintain its aerodynamics during launch. protect the spacecraft from physical pressure and heat. The spacecraft and fairing are attached to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, ready for takeoff from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A.
The spacecraft integrates a technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC). DSOC will test high-data-rate laser communications beyond the moon for the first time, potentially used in future NASA missions. The tech demo does not relay Psyche mission data.
startup sequence
The rocket has two stages and two side boosters. After the side boosters separate and return to land, the core stage will be deployed into the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket’s second stage then ignites its engine, helping Psyche escape Earth’s gravity.
Once the rocket leaves Earth’s atmosphere, about four minutes after liftoff, the fairing separates from the rocket, splits into two pieces, and jettisons them to Earth. The spacecraft will separate from the upper stage approximately one hour after liftoff. Immediately thereafter, the twin solar arrays are deployed one at a time and pointed toward the sun. At this point, the spacecraft will be in its planned “safe mode” (precautionary standby), with the sun illuminating the deployed solar panels and beginning to point its low-gain antenna toward Earth for communications.
After separation from the rocket, it can take up to two hours to receive the first signal.
Once stable communications are established, mission controllers begin reconfiguring the spacecraft to its planned mode of operation. The subsequent three-month initial checkout will include a commissioning phase to ensure all hardware and software, including the electric thrusters, is working as expected. About five months after launch, the thrusters will fire on her one at a time during the long orbit to reach the asteroid.
Psyche’s efficient solar-powered propulsion system works by accelerating and ejecting charged atoms or ions of the neutral gas xenon, creating a thrust that gently propels the spacecraft over a period of about six years and approx. The spacecraft will embark on a 2.2 billion mile (3.6 billion kilometer) journey. Asteroid Psyche is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Along the way, in May 2026, the spacecraft will fly by Mars and use the Red Planet’s gravity to slingshot toward Psyche, conserving propellant while gaining speed and changing direction. .
After the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid in 2029, it will spend about 26 months in orbit collecting images and other data.
Scientists believe that Psyche may be part of the core of a planetesimal (the building blocks of early planets) and may be composed of a mixture of rock and iron-nickel metals. No metals are mined. It will be studied to help researchers better understand what makes up Earth’s core and how rocky planets formed in our solar system. Since humans can’t dig a path into the core of our planet, or any other rocky planet, visiting Psyche allows us to explore the violent history of collisions and material accumulation that gave rise to planets like ours. It may provide the only window to know. Own.
Mission details
Arizona State University is leading the psych mission. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is responsible for overall mission management, systems engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies of Palo Alto, Calif., provided the high-power solar-electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
JPL manages the DSOC for the Technology Demonstration Mission Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communications and Navigation Program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for launch vehicle insight and approval and will manage launch services for the Psyche mission. After two and a half years of work, LSP has certified SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for use in the agency’s most complex and highest priority missions in early 2023.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/psyche
News media contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Alyse Fisher / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-358-1501
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov