Photo Credits: NASA
On October 12th, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft launched and traveled the mitral-rich asteroid. It will travel and orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will also have a depth communication technology demonstration that will test the communications that go beyond the Moon.
Psyche is NASA’s first scientific mission to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon will tell us more about how the planets in our solar systems are formed.
It was set to launch at 10:16 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 12 through October 25. Every day, new information will be found and the mission will gain new meaning behind each day it is launched. The rocket is broken down into two stages and two side boosters. After the side boosters separate and return to land, the core stage will expand into the Atlantic Ocean. The second stage of the rocket will help Psyche escape Earth’s gravity.
Four minutes after the launch into the earth’s atmosphere, Psyche separated and split into two halves, which will come back down to earth. Once there is stable communication, the spacecraft will be put into operation mode.
The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. NASA’s Launch Services Program is based at Kennedy Space Center, which is responsible for the insight and the launch of the spacecraft.
Psyche is the 14th mission that was selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program. The program is managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
According to NASA, in May of 2026, the spacecraft which is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy will fly to Mars and use the planet’s gravity to slingshot itself towards Psyche, while gaining speed and changing direction. Once the spacecraft reaches the asteroid in 2029, it will spend 29 months in orbit. It will gather images and other data.
