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Weather 20% Favorable for Thursday’s Psyche Launch

A Psyche mission graphic is displayed on the historic countdown clock as the Sun rises at Kennedy Space Center's NASA News Center in Florida on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. NASA's Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soared into the sky after lifting off from Kennedy's Launch Complex 39A at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13. The Psyche mission will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This is NASA's first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration – NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment – which will be the first test of laser communications beyond the Moon.

Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 20% chance of favorable weather conditions for Thursday’s launch, with the anvil cloud, cumulous cloud, and surface electric field rules being the primary weather concerns.

SpaceX is targeting 10:16 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 12, to launch NASA’s Psyche spacecraft atop its Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche has launch opportunities through Oct. 25.

Psyche is the first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface that likely contains substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for the insight and approval of the launch vehicle and manages the launch service for the Psyche mission.

Join the conversation, follow the launch, and get Psyche mission updates from these accounts:

X: @NASA, @NASAJPL, @NASA_LSP, @NASASolarSystem, @NASA_Technology, @NASASCaN, @NASAKennedy, @NASA
Facebook: NASA, NASA LSP, NASAJPL, NASASolarSystem, NASATechnology, NASASCaN
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASAJPL, @nasasolarsystem