NASA’s Launch of Asteroid Psyche Mission Delayed in Major Setback

The launch of the NASA Asteroid Psyche Mission, originally planned for October 5, 2023, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida using the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, has been postponed. The delay is necessary to conduct additional inspections and verification of the spacecraft and its instruments. The mission has now been rescheduled for October 12, 2023, with a one-week delay.

NASA’s Psyche Mission launch date

According to a NASA report. The Falcon Heavy launch of the Psyche mission will now take place on October 12, 2023 at 10:16 a.m. EDT. NASA said: “The change allows the NASA team to perform checks on the parameters used to drive the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters.” According to reports, the parameters were recently integrated, supporting science, power, heat, spacecraft orientation and momentum. management and other requirements for the success of the operation.

Additionally, NASA said that the launch could take place between October 12 and October 25 after all the requirements for a successful launch have been reviewed.

About the Psyche asteroid mission

According to a report from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the mission has plans to study a metallic asteroid called “Psyche.” The asteroid now orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid has a nickel-iron core that NASA says is essential to the creation of our solar system. The goal of the mission is to get about 280 kilometers close to the Psyche asteroid.

The mission will progress if the asteroid is nuclear or just unmelted material. In addition, it will study its topography and the gravity of the asteroid with various scientific instruments, such as a multispectral camera, a magnetometer, a gamma ray and neutron meter, and others.

The Psyche Mission is also testing a new laser communication technology called Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC). Deep space communication is achieved with this technology by encoding data into photons at infrared wavelengths. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed this technology, which can reduce the time it takes to communicate between Earth and deep space.

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