Bound for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche mission is targeting October 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 loade
spacecraft has less than 30 days to go before the opening of its launch period, which runs from Thursday, October 5 through Wednesday, October 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!”
Psyche mission team members prepare the spacecraft at a facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late July, just after the solar arrays were folded and stowed. Credit: NASA/Kim ShiflettWithin 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 tofacilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will take a spiral path to the asteroid Psyche, as depicted in this graphic, which is labeled with key milestones of the prime mission. The test periods for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration are indicated with red dots. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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