After being delayed by a year, NASA said Monday that its much-anticipated mission to send a spacecraft to investigate a metal-rich asteroid is now scheduled to launch in October.
Prior to the mission team requesting a launch postponement due to software faults and organizational challenges at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Psyche spacecraft, named after the asteroid to which it is traveling, was scheduled to launch in August.
NASA Psyche Mission Set to Launch in October
Last summer, an impartial review panel was assembled by NASA and its Pasadena, California-based JPL to determine what causes contributed to the delay.
The May 30 board’s report, which was made public on Monday, stated that the actions done by NASA and the California Institute of Technology since November to restart the delayed mission had been excellent and have exceeded expectations.
In part because of worries that the in-flight software was not ready, the Psyche team abandoned plans to launch the spacecraft last year before the launch window closed on Oct. 11, NASA reported in October.
The evaluation panel was chaired by a former aerospace executive.
Thomas Young came to a similar conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic-related workforce concerns led to the delay.
In response, the Psyche mission expanded its crew, realigned a portion of its employees, and implemented metrics to make sure the launch proceeded as planned.
According to NASA, the mission’s senior management’s oversight has improved as a result of the review board’s report.
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Unveiling Secrets of Earth’s Core and Terrestrial Planets
As part of the 1992-established Discovery Program, NASA started preparing the Psyche mission in 2017 to study the same metallic asteroid.
After a 280 million-mile voyage, the Psyche spacecraft will finally launch in October and arrive at the asteroid Psyche in August 2029.
The spacecraft’s construction is finished, with the exception of the imagers and solar arrays, which needed to be replaced before June.
The mission’s final construction, testing, and launch procedures start this month.
The Astrotech Space Operations Facility, which is close to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will receive engineers and technicians from NASA’s JPL, where they will stay until the launch.
The 26-month orbit of the metallic asteroid around Psyche is intended to shed light on Earth’s own core as well as the cores of other terrestrial planets, according to scientists.