24/7 Space News
IRON AND ICE
Psyche on track for liftoff next month
file illustration
Psyche on track for liftoff next month
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 08, 2023

Bound for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche mission is targeting Oct. 5 to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The spacecraft's solar arrays are folded like an envelope into their stowed position. Xenon gas - fuel for the journey to the asteroid belt - is loaded. All four thrusters have passed their final tests. Engineers have confirmed the massive high-gain antenna is set to transmit data. The software is tested and ready. The science instruments - a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer - that will investigate the asteroid Psyche are poised for action.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft has less than 30 days to go before the opening of its launch period, which runs from Thursday, Oct. 5 through Wednesday, Oct. 25. What the mission learns from the metal-rich asteroid may tell us more about how planets form.

"These missions take so many people and so much meticulous, rigorous, personally driven work," said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at Arizona State University. "I am ready to be ecstatic. We all are, but we are not ecstatic yet. Let's launch and establish communications - then we can scream, jump, and hug each other!"

Within two weeks, technicians will begin encapsulating the spacecraft in its payload fairing - the cone at the top of the rocket - and the spacecraft will move to SpaceX facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from the center's Launch Complex 39A at 10:38 a.m. EDT on Oct. 5.

"It's getting increasingly real," said Henry Stone, Psyche's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We are counting the days. The team is more than ready to send this spacecraft off on its journey, and it's very exciting."

After escaping Earth's gravity, Psyche will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to the asteroid. The efficient propulsion system works by accelerating and expelling charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon - creating a thrust that gently propels the spacecraft with a force akin to what you'd feel holding a single AA battery in your hand. Technicians recently loaded 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of xenon onto the spacecraft over the course of about two weeks.

Measuring roughly 173 miles (279 kilometers) at its widest point, the asteroid Psyche presents a unique opportunity to explore a metal-rich body that may be part of a core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend about 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.

Related Links
Psyche at NASA
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
IRON AND ICE
NASA completes last OSIRIS-REx test before asteroid sample delivery
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 04, 2023
A team led by NASA in Utah's West Desert is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of the first U.S. asteroid sample - slated to land on Earth in September. A mockup of NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) sample capsule was dropped Wednesday from an aircraft and landed at the drop zone at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. This was part of the mission's final ma ... read more

IRON AND ICE
China continues to make strides in space breeding technique

Artificial star

Station Hosts 11 Crewmates from Five Countries

A multinational crew blasts off from Florida, heading for the International Space Station

IRON AND ICE
Sea launch 1st by Chinese private entity

Japan launches telescope and moon lander following weather delays

Another successful hot-fire test for Ariane 6 upper stage

Pulsar Fusion forms partnership with University of Michigan for electric propulsion

IRON AND ICE
China publishes new datasets obtained by Mars, lunar probes

Sols 3932-3933: Touch and Go, Go, Go!

Mars helicopter Ingenuity completes 56th flight

Copy and Paste at Gale Crater: Sols 3934-3935

IRON AND ICE
China solicits names for manned lunar exploration vehicles

From rice to quantum gas: China's targets pioneering space research

China to launch "Innovation X Scientific Flight" program, applications open worldwide

Scientists reveal blueprint of China's lunar water-ice probe mission

IRON AND ICE
Vodafone and Amazon's Project Kuiper to extend connectivity in Africa and Europe

SpaceX sends 22 new Starlink satellites into orbit in 60th launch of 2023

Intuitive Machines announces $20M equity investment

LeoStella and Hera Systems Establish Strategic Alliance

IRON AND ICE
SatixFy announces strategic $60M transaction with MDA

ReOrbit completes oversubscribed seed funding round

Terran Orbital unveils new product line of seven satellite buses

A system to keep cloud-based gamers in sync

IRON AND ICE
Newly discovered planet has longest orbit yet detected by the TESS mission

Thermometer molecule confirmed on exoplanet WASP-31b

New giant planet evidence of possible planetary collisions

Hot Jupiter blows its top

IRON AND ICE
SwRI will lead Hubble, Webb observations of Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon

In the service of planetary science, astrophysics and heliophysics

Mysterious Neptune dark spot detected from Earth for the first time

Neptune's Disappearing Clouds Linked to the Solar Cycle

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.