With a successful Mars gravity assist in its rearview mirror, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has fired up its thrusters and is accelerating to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. During the first leg of its journey, following an October 2023 launch, the mission used its electric propulsion system intermittently to maneuver to the right place […]
When NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars for a gravity assist on May 15, 2026, it gave the mission team an opportunity to test instruments and prep for science they’ll conduct when reaching the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029, and collect images and a time-lapse video of the Mars encounter.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will get a boost from Mars on Friday, May 15, passing just 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) from the planet’s surface at some 12,333 mph (19,848 kph). The spacecraft will harness the planet’s gravitational pull to speed up and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, one of the more unusual objects […]
NASA’s Psyche observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS over the course of eight hours on Sept. 8 and 9, when the comet was about 33 million miles (53 million kilometers) from the spacecraft. Captured by the mission’s multispectral imager, these observations help astronomers refine the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS. Psyche’s multispectral imager instrument comprises a pair of identical […]
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft resumed full thruster operations on June 16, and the propulsion system is performing as expected after mission engineers switched to a backup propellant line. They will operate the thrusters for the equivalent of three months between now and November to keep the orbiter’s trajectory to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche on track. Operation […]
Engineers with NASA’s Psyche mission have developed a solution to address the decrease in fuel pressure they detected recently in the spacecraft’s propulsion system
Engineers with NASA’s Psyche mission are working to determine what caused a recent decrease in fuel pressure in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
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 …
