{"id":7516,"date":"2023-07-18T19:48:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T19:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/nasas-psyche-mission-enters-home-stretch-before-launch\/"},"modified":"2023-07-18T19:48:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T19:48:15","slug":"nasas-psyche-mission-enters-home-stretch-before-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/nasas-psyche-mission-enters-home-stretch-before-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Psyche mission enters home stretch before launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26 at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA\/Frank Michaux
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Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5.<\/p>\n

With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.\n<\/p>\n

The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.\n<\/p>\n

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\n The high gain antenna of NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft takes center stage in this photo, captured at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA\/Frank Michaux
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“The team and I are now counting down the days to launch,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Our focus has shifted to safely completing the final mechanical closeout of the spacecraft and preparing the team for operations. The team is conducting numerous training activities to ensure that we are prepared and ready. It’s a very busy time, but everyone is very excited and looking forward to the launch.”\n<\/p>\n

Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy (the first interplanetary launch for that rocket) from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. PDT) on Oct. 5, with additional opportunities scheduled through Oct. 25. After escaping Earth’s gravity, the Psyche spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to asteroid Psyche.\n<\/p>\n

Measuring about 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 at least 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.<\/p>\n

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