Psyche spacecraft arrives at JPL

Psyche arrives at JPL, Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

On March 29th, 2021, Maxar delivered a spacecraft to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This spacecraft is for NASA’s Psyche mission, to explore an asteroid made entirely of metal. Psyche is named for its target asteroid, 16 Psyche, an asteroid that is made not of rock and ice like most asteroids, but of solid metal.

Psyche was selected in 2017 to be the 14th mission in the Discovery program. The Psyche spacecraft already has it's antenna, Ion thrusters, and most of its systems installed. The science instruments will arrive soon, and then be added to the spacecraft bus. Psyche is currently scheduled for launch in August of 2022 aboard a Falcon Heavy. The Psyche will arrive in orbit around it's target asteroid in 2026.

I hope to publish a page dedicated to this mission in the coming weeks.

Later this year, NASA is expected to announce the next two Discovery-class missions. They will be chosen out of the four finalists, A flyby of Neptune and it's moon Triton, A orbiter to study Venus's atmosphere, An orbiter to study Io's volcanoes, or a Venus mission that will map the surface using radar.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-begins-final-assembly-of-spacecraft-destined-for-asteroid-psyche/