Falcon Heavy is projected to launch NASA’s Psyche planetary science mission in 2022.
NASA has awarded Falcon Heavy launches to SpaceX for the Psyche asteroid mission and for the first two elements of the lunar Gateway.
NASA selected the asteroid missions Lucy and Psyche in early 2017 instead of Venus missions in that previous Discovery selection.
SpaceX has NASA contracts to launch the Psyche mission to the metallic asteroid Psyche in 2022 and to launch the first two elements of the lunar Gateway in 2024 on Falcon Heavy.
Psyche will perform a gravity-assist flyby of Mars in May 2023.
The Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in August 2022.
The Psyche spacecraft will be fully assembled and ready to ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida by spring 2022.
For testing the Psyche transmitter, the Model 4426 Telemetry Receiver is processing a QPSK signal at 1.08 Mbps and is capable of operation up to 40 Mbps.
The value of the Gateway launch contract at $331,800,000 is nearly three times higher than the $117,000,000 contract NASA awarded to SpaceX in February 2020 for the Falcon Heavy launch of the Psyche asteroid mission.
Contract values for those NASA science launches have varied from $50,300,000 for IXPE to $117,000,000 for Psyche.
Psyche was originally planned to launch on a Falcon 9 Full Thrust but was ultimately assigned to launch on a Falcon Heavy because Falcon Heavy performance was needed for Psyche to reach its required orbit.
Two Venus missions were among the five finalists in the previous round of NASA’s Discovery program, but NASA selected the asteroid missions Lucy and Psyche in early 2017 and provided additional study funding to NEOCam.
Psyche was one of two missions NASA selected in January 2017 for the Discovery program of relatively low-cost planetary science missions.
The Psyche spacecraft will perform a Mars flyby in 2023 to arrive at the asteroid Psyche in January 2026.
NASA selected the Lucy and Psyche asteroid missions in January 2017.
Psyche is scheduled to launch in August 2022 on a launch vehicle that has not yet been selected.
The Europa Clipper mission, planned for a 2023 launch, plans to use the same JPL clean room and has stricter cleanliness requirements that could force Psyche integration and testing to be conducted off-site.
NASA’s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal included a Psyche cost range of $907,300,000 to $957,300,000 and requested $213,200,000 for the mission in 2019-10-01.
The Psyche spacecraft will perform a Mars flyby in 2023 en route to asteroid Psyche.
The Government Accountability Office report included a Psyche cost range of $907,300,000 to $957,300,000.