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Psyche

    Second Stage Fueling Started

    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.

    SpaceX confirms fueling for the second stage of the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Psyche spacecraft is underway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three Falcon 9 engine cores, each housing nine Merlin engines, make up the Falcon Heavy and combine to generate more than five million pounds of thrust at liftoff – equal to …

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    NASA Begins Live Broadcast of Psyche Mission

    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.

    NASA just ramped up its coverage of today's Psyche launch, as the live broadcast with commentary has now begun. Tune in to NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, X, Facebook, Twitch, Daily Motion, or the NASA UHD channel starting now for launch day commentary, interviews, and everything you need to know about the launch of …

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    First Stage Fueling Started

    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.

    Moments ago, mission teams polled "go" to begin fueling the Falcon Heavy's three first-stage core boosters. The Falcon Heavy is a two-stage rocket with a central core and two side boosters that uses RP-1 (a refined kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX) to fuel its 27 Merlin engines, which combine to generate 5,000,000 pounds of thrust. …

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    Watch NASA’s Psyche Mission Technical Feed

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: SpaceX

    Live Psyche launch coverage without commentary has begun on the NASA Television media channel. The NASA Television media channel provides clean feeds of the agency's news, briefings, and conferences, daily video files from around the agency, and the only available feeds of mission coverage that contain only mission audio and natural sound. The live launch …

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    Key Milestones for Today’s Psyche Launch

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.

    We're a little over an hour away from today's launch of NASA's Psyche mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here's a closer look at some of today's important countdown and ascent milestones (all times are approximate): Time Events – 00:53:00 SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for propellant load – …

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    The Psyche Spacecraft and Science Instruments

    Engineers and technicians from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California perform final assembly, test, and launch operations on the Psyche spacecraft in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    The Psyche spacecraft will launch weighing over 6,000 pounds, with its body, or bus, spanning 16.1 feet tall, including the 6.6-foot booms for two instruments, 7.1 feet wide, and 7.8 feet deep. With its two five-panel, cross-shaped solar panels fully deployed, Psyche would just about cover a tennis court at 81 feet by 24 feet. …

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    NASA’s Psyche Mission – First to a Metal-Rich Asteroid

    NASA's Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid – also named Psyche, after the goddess of the soul in ancient Greek mythology. The asteroid Psyche orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter and is unique in that it appears to be part or all of the iron-rich interior of a planetesimal, an …

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    Weather 85% Favorable for Today’s Launch

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at sunset at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023

    We remain a "go" for launch, with the latest weather update from the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicting a 85% chance of favorable weather today for liftoff. Teams continue targeting liftoff of NASA's Psyche mission at 10:19 a.m. EDT from Kennedy's Launch Complex 39A. The primary weather concern for the launch area is …

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    Live Coverage for Psyche Begins

    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.

    Good morning, and welcome to live launch coverage from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida of the mission to Psyche, a metal-rich world! Psyche is the first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface that likely contains substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice. This also will be NASA's Launch Services Program's …

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    Weather 40% Favorable for Friday Psyche Launch

    A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's 45th Weather Squadron predict a 40% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch of NASA's Psyche mission at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Showers and storms are expected at …

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