The Psyche mission launch occurs in Phase D. NASA selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the Psyche mission. Psyche successfully launched at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, October 13, 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. View the overall launch schedule and coverage information.
Prior to launch, the instruments and spacecraft are assembled and tested.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, lifts off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. The Psyche mission will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This is NASA’s first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration – NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment – which will be the first test of laser communications beyond the Moon. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Once the Psyche spacecraft is fully assembled with the solar panels, which fold during transport and launch, the spacecraft is shipped to Kennedy Space Center, Florida. At the launch site, the team conducts an entire re-check of the spacecraft before integrating it with the launch vehicle.
Psyche successfully launched 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. View the overall launch schedule.. The launch was broadcast and streamed live via NASA TV.
NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the Psyche mission on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Once in space, the Psyche spacecraft travels using solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion. Solar electric propulsion uses electricity from solar arrays to create electromagnetic fields to accelerate and expel charged atoms (ions) of xenon to create a very low thrust with a very efficient use of propellant.[14] This will be the first use of Hall effect thrusters beyond lunar orbit.
The spacecraft will travel 2.2 billion miles.
