NASA’s Psyche Mission Is One Year From Launch

NASA officially confirmed this week that its Psyche mission is less than a year from launch. The spacecraft will be fully assembled and moved from the JPL in Southern California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida by next spring. The launch window for Psyche opens on August 1, 2022.

The goal of the mission is to explore a metal-rich asteroid called Psyche. The asteroid lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists think Psyche is about 140 miles wide and is composed mostly of iron and nickel.

Theories suggest that Psyche could be the failed core of an early planet. It will take 21 months before the Psyche spacecraft reaches the asteroid and gathers its data. Data will be gathered using a magnetometer, multispectral imager, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer. Scientists hope to learn more about the asteroid and gain insights into how other planets, including our own, develop.

Its incredible to be at this point now, with a big spacecraft coming together and one year until launch, said Arizona State Universitys Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who as principal investigator leads the Psyche mission. Like everyone in the world, our team has faced many challenges of the COVID pandemic, and we are putting in maximum effort to make it to the finish line. Im so proud of this incredible group of people!