NASA Psyche Spacecraft Prepared for Launch to Metal-Rich Asteroid

NASA Psyche Spacecraft Prepared for Launch to Metal-Rich Asteroid

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida

A team working on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft transitioning it from a vertical to horizontal test configuration during prelaunch processing inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians prepare to move the agency’s Psyche spacecraft—recently removed from its shipping container and inside a protective covering—to a work stand

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is nearly complete. Here it is shown in a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for no earlier than October 2023.

Destination: Only the 16th asteroid to be discovered, Psyche was found in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, who named it for the goddess of the soul in ancient Greek mythology. It has a mean diameter of approximately 220 kilometers (140 mi) and contains about one percent of the mass of the asteroid belt.

What gives asteroid Psyche great scientific interest is that it is likely rich in metal. It may consist largely of metal from the core of a planetesimal, one of the building blocks of the Sun’s planetary system. At Psyche scientists will explore, for the first time ever, a world made not of rock or ice, but rich in metal.

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. Psyche was selected in 2017 as the 14th mission under NASA’s Discovery Program.

For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:

www.nasa.gov/psyche and psyche.asu.edu

Image Credits: NASA/Frank Michaux/JPL/Wes Kuykendall

Image Dates: June 26, 2023-May 2, 2022

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