Meet the Psyche Team

Mission Management

Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Principal Investigator

Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist with expertise in planet formation and evolution.

Two people dressed in white protective clothing and hair covers talk near the Psyche spacecraft.

A reporter interviews Lindy Elkins-Tanton in front of the Psyche spacecraft on April 11, 2022, inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

People wearing purple Psyche mission shirts pose for a photo.

Members of the Psyche Flight Team (Phase C/D) pose for a group photo in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Psyche is Collaboration

The Psyche mission is only possible by drawing together resources and know-how from NASA, universities, and industry.

The mission’s leader – Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton – is based at the University of California, Berkeley.

Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona, manages mission outreach and the science data center.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, a leader in robotic exploration of the solar system, manages the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is also responsible for system engineering, integration and testing, and mission operations.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages launch operations and procured the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Maxar Technologies is a key commercial participant in the mission. Its team in Palo Alto, California, delivered the solar electric propulsion chassis – the main body of the spacecraft – and most of its engineering hardware systems.

Three workers in white protective gear, hair covers and face mask stand near the Psyche spacecraft as it sits on a stand at Astrotech Space Operations facility.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA/Frank Michaux

Psyche is Discovery Class

Psyche is a NASA Discovery Class mission.

The primary goal of the Discovery Program is to conduct a series of frequent, highly focused, cost-effective missions to answer critical questions in solar system science. The program concentrates on smaller missions that require fewer resources and shorter development times than NASA's larger "flagship" missions.

Discovery-class missions like these are relatively low-cost, with development capped at about $450 million.

Discovery missions are managed for NASA’s Planetary Science Division by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The missions are designed and led by a principal investigator who assembles a team of scientists and engineers to address key science questions about the solar system.