Several missions led by JPL, including Psyche, NISAR, and Europa Clipper, have either launched or are nearing completion, reducing near-term growth needs at the laboratory.
The Falcon Heavy side boosters that landed on the USSF-52 mission previously supported the USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPTER 3, and NASA Psyche missions.
Those Falcon Heavy side boosters previously supported the USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPTER 3, and NASA’s Psyche missions.
The side boosters for the USSF-52 Falcon Heavy will be making their fifth flight after previously supporting USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPITER 3, and NASA’s Psyche missions.
Maxar Space Systems built the Psyche spacecraft chassis based on the Maxar 1300 series bus.
Psyche’s propulsion system is three times as powerful as the solar electric propulsion systems on more than 40 spacecraft Maxar has built.
The Maxar 1300 spacecraft used for Psyche is one of the lightest and smallest Maxar has produced.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The first opportunity to power on the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration aboard Psyche is expected in about three weeks when the spacecraft is roughly 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
Psyche will perform a Mars gravity assist in May 2026 to gain speed and change direction toward asteroid Psyche while saving propellant.
Institutional issues at JPL identified in the Psyche review led NASA to delay the VERITAS mission, which was selected in 2021 for a 2028 launch and is now scheduled for launch no earlier than 2031.
Maxar Space Systems built the Psyche spacecraft chassis based on the Maxar 1300™ series bus.
Psyche will travel beyond Mars to study a metal-rich asteroid in 2029 and will spend 26 months orbiting and collecting data from the asteroid.
NASA engineers reviewed data from a Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base that took place early 2023-10-09 in their evaluations related to the Psyche launch.
The Psyche spacecraft will conduct a technology demonstration of the Deep Space Optical Communications payload to test laser high-bandwidth communications at interplanetary distances.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Psyche spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system will accelerate and expel charged xenon ions to create thrust for a nearly six-year, about 2.2 billion-mile (3.6 billion-kilometer) journey to asteroid Psyche.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which is managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched NASA’s Psyche spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 10:19 a.m. Eastern on 2023-10-13.
NASA delayed the Psyche launch from an original Aug. 2022 schedule after flight software testing delays forced the mission to skip launch opportunities in August and October 2022.