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Psyche

    Signal Acquired – Psyche Begins Its Journey of Discovery

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    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 …

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    Psyche Spacecraft Separates From Falcon Heavy Second Stage

    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 …

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    Second Stage Engine Cutoff Reached

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

    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 …

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    Successful Landing of Side Boosters

    A side booster from SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket successfully lands at the company's landing zone at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, just minutes after NASA's Psyche launch from Kennedy Space Center. 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.

    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.

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    Launch Vehicle Reaches Max Q, Booster Engines Cutoff

    The Falcon Heavy side boosters separate from the center core to begin their descent back to Earth after the launch of the Psyche mission, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

    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 …

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    Liftoff of NASA’s Psyche and DSOC Experiment!

    NASA's Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

    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 …

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    NASA Launch Manager Gives ‘Go’ for Launch

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is ready for launch at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

    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 …

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    Weather Is Still 85% Go

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is ready for launch at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.

    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.

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    NASA’s Psyche: By the Numbers

    Psyche spacecraft, shown close to a colorful asteroid.

    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 …

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