Psyche mission controllers on Earth have received full acquisition of signal from the spacecraft, and the solar arrays are fully deployed. The spacecraft will be propelled by solar electric propulsion. The five-panel, cross-shaped solar arrays provide around 800 square feet of solar collecting surface and make the spacecraft about the size of a singles tennis …
The Psyche spacecraft separated from the SpaceX Falcon Heavy second stage. Psyche mission control has acquired the carrier wave signal, which provides real-time data prior to deployment of the spacecraft’s solar arrays and before full acquisition of signal, expected in the next few hours. While NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) – integrated on the …
The initial second stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) is complete. The second stage engine will restart for its second burn (SES-2) in just about 44 minutes. This second burn (SECO-2) will give the Psyche spacecraft the additional thrust needed to escape Earth’s gravity, after which the spacecraft will separate from the second stage. The deployed Psyche …
The side boosters from the Falcon Heavy have landed successfully at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, nearby Kennedy Space Center.
Just moments ago, the first and second stages of the Falcon Heavy center core separated, and the second stage engine started.
The Falcon Heavy passed Max Q, or the moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket, and reached booster engine cutoff (BECO), where both boosters cease firing and separate from the center core to begin their descent back to Earth. The side boosters have begun their journey back to Landing Zones 1 and 2 at …
We have liftoff! NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, along with the agency’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration, launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT. The Falcon Heavy’s 27 Merlin engines are generating more than 5,000,000 pounds of thrust, quickly pushing the vehicle through the atmosphere and away …
The NASA launch manager, Tim Dunn, has just given NASA’s Psyche mission a “go” for launch! Mission and launch managers are counting down to the liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be the first interplanetary mission for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. This …
We are about 10 minutes from launch, and the weather outlook for NASA’s Psyche launch from Kennedy Space Center remains outstanding. Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict an 85% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff of NASA’s mission to the asteroid Psyche.
In approximately 20 minutes, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida on a first-of-its-kind mission for the agency. Let’s look at some facts and figures that make the Psyche mission unique: This will be the first time NASA has …
