A first: The Psyche spacecraft was launched with a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket!

Ana sayfa / Popular Science

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft took off early today aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The spacecraft has quite a long journey ahead of it to reach its destination, the Psyche asteroid, which is officially a metal-rich asteroid. This mission marks a series of firsts, as it’s the first time NASA used SpaceX’s larger rocket for a scientific mission launch. Here are the details…

The Psyche spacecraft has embarked on its journey towards the asteroid!

Despite previous reports of potential delays due to adverse weather conditions, the Psyche spacecraft has been successfully launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 10:19 AM. The spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket’s upper stage about an hour after liftoff. Additionally, NASA engineers were able to establish communication with the spacecraft a short while before noon.

The Psyche spacecraft has now embarked on a journey to the asteroid for which the mission is named, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This journey will be quite long, lasting six years, covering a distance of 2.2 billion miles.

Before reaching its destination, the spacecraft will also perform an important task for NASA. The increasing number of satellites has raised concerns about signal interference. Hence, the Deep Space Optical Communication experiment is critical for satellite-to-ground communication systems. If successful, optical communication will be extended beyond the Earth-Moon system.

The mini-bus-sized spacecraft will arrive at Mars in May 2026. It will utilize Mars’ gravitational field to propel itself towards the target asteroid. Once Psyche reaches its destination, it will study an asteroid with a metal-rich surface.

Additionally, the spacecraft will spend 26 months in orbit around the metal-rich asteroid, capturing multi-spectral images to create a surface map. It will also analyze the asteroid’s chemical and mineral composition. The spacecraft will employ instruments like a radio antenna and spectrometer to study the asteroid’s gravitational field and high-energy particles.