The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports NASA is using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket “for the first time, aiming to send a probe named Psyche to an asteroid with the same name this week.” The Psyche probe is “set to lift off from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A as early as 10:16 a.m. Thursday, although weather forecasts show only a 20% chance for good conditions. … The $700 million satellite managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory aims to unlock the asteroid Psyche’s secrets, which scientists suspect is metal-rich.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
Tag: Psyche Mission
NASA’s Psyche Probe Achieves First Light Transmission
Aviation Week reported that NASA recently “conducted a test of laser communications capabilities with a ‘first light’ transmission from the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment aboard the Psyche mission spacecraft.”
Full Story (Aviation Week – subscription publication)
NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Reignites Thrusters After Switching to Backup Mode
Ars Technica reports, “A NASA spacecraft bound for an unexplored metal-rich asteroid has reignited its plasma thrusters, continuing its cruise deeper into the Solar System after switching to a backup fuel line. The $1.4 billion Psyche mission, built to explore an asteroid with the same name, has four electric thrusters fueled by xenon gas. Psyche’s solar-electric propulsion system is more fuel-efficient than conventional rocket thrusters, and it works by flowing xenon through an electromagnetic field, which ionizes the gas and expels the ions at high speed to produce thrust.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)