NASA Updates Psyche Mission Plan

After a one-year delay to complete critical testing, NASA's Psyche mission has been updated as the spacecraft is prepared for launch to explore a metal-rich asteroid.

Set to launch in October 2023, the redesigned flight plan gives the mission more flexibility in how the spacecraft uses its electric propulsion thrusters to reach the asteroid, move between orbits, and remain in orbit. The mission also includes a flyby of Mars for a gravity assist, with arrival at the asteroid expected in August 2029. The asteroid, located in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may be the remains of a core of a planetesimal, a building block of a rocky planet.

When Psyche arrives at Psyche the mission will then enter its 26-month science phase, collecting observations and data as the spacecraft orbits the asteroid at different altitudes.

One of the challenges faced by mission planners was the unusual rotation of the asteroid Psyche, which rotates on its side. This unusual rotation had to be taken into account when mapping out the spacecraft’s observation orbits around the asteroid. In the new mission plan, Psyche will initially enter Orbit A, then descend to Orbit B1, then Orbit D, back out to Orbit C, and finally it will move out to Orbit B2 (the second portion of Orbit B).

Engineers and technicians are completing the final verification and validation of the system-level elements of the fully integrated spacecraft. Tests are being performed on the spacecraft as well as in the mission’s three system test beds. In the spring, engineers will run a series of “day in the life” tests, when they use test beds to operate Psyche for five to seven days at a time with the same commands that they will use when it is in flight.

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, intended to test high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft.

The spacecraft is currently in a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In June, the mission will begin its final assembly, test, and launch operations, and engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will return to Astrotech and work there until launch.

Assembly of the spacecraft is complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers, which may be reinstalled before June.

A final suite of tests will be run on the spacecraft, after which it will be fueled and then mated to the launch vehicle just prior to launch.

Psyche will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, its launch window will open on October 5th and close on October 25th.

The mission is expected to shed new light on the history and characteristics of asteroids, and to provide insight into the formation of the solar system.