NASA Psyche Asteroid Mission Spacecraft Launch Prep | Kennedy Space Center

NASA Psyche Asteroid Mission Spacecraft Launch Prep | Kennedy Space Center

Teams transport NASA's encapsulated Psyche spacecraft from Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville to Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023

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. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than 10:16 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 12. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.

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.

For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to: www.nasa.gov/psyche and psyche.asu.edu

The spacecraft is expected to begin orbiting the asteroid Psyche in 2029.

More About the Psyche Mission

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. 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 is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. Psyche was selected in 2017 as the 14th mission under NASA’s Discovery Program.

Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Image Dates: Oct. 3-6, 2023

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