SpaceX Falcon Heavy - Psyche - KSC LC-39A - 13 October 2023 (14:19 UTC)

[Chris Bergin]

Discussion thread for the Psyche launch mission.

NSF Threads for Psyche : NASA Psyche Updates and Discussion / SpaceX Psyche Launch Mission Discussion

Launch on 13 October 2023, at 14:19:43 UTC (10:19 am EDT), on Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center LC-39A.  Side boosters 1064-4 and 1065-4 successfully returned to LZ-1 and LZ-2,  respectively.  Center booster 1079-1 was expended at sea.

EscaPADE has been removed from this flight.  Janus has also been removed.


February 28, 2020
CONTRACT RELEASE C20-006
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for the Psyche Mission

NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Psyche mission. The Psyche mission currently is targeted to launch in July 2022 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The total cost for NASA to launch Psyche and the secondary payloads is approximately $117 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.

The Psyche mission will journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid, also named Psyche, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is considered unique, as it appears to largely be made of the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet – one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets, including Earth, scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planet’s rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth’s core directly, the mission to Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.

The launch of Psyche will include two secondary payloads: Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE), which will study the Martian atmosphere, and Janus, which will study binary asteroids. 

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the SpaceX launch service. The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration, testing and mission operations. Maxar Space Solutions is providing a high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.

For more information about the Psyche mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/psyche

[Orbiter]

Wow - major win for Falcon Heavy!

[cebri]

Fully expendable?

edit: center core will be expended apparently (speculation based on the price).

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SpaceX particularly noting launch vehicle reliability required

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1233502921469370368

Falcon Heavy will launch @NASAPsyche! The mission, for which @NASA requires the highest level of launch vehicle reliability, will study a metal asteroid between Mars and Jupiter to help humanity better understand the formation of our solar system’s planets go.nasa.gov/2VCFdap

Edit to add: interesting ...

https://twitter.com/stephenclark1/status/1233507408502251521

NASA says the launch of Psyche will NOT utilize previously-flown boosters on the Falcon Heavy.

[PM3]

NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Psyche mission. The Psyche mission currently is targeted to launch in July 2022 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The Psyche project website says August 2022. 

[ZChris13]

Fully expendable?

edit: center core will be expended apparently.

Where did you see that?

[cebri]

Sorry, I was just speculating based on the price of the contract. Edited OG post.

[vaporcobra]

Sorry, I was just speculating based on the price of the contract. Edited OG post.

IIRC, Psyche is expected to weigh 2800 kg at launch and requires a C^3 of ~15 km^2/s^2. Per NASA LSP's calculator, a fully recoverable Falcon Heavy can launch about 4500 kg to that C3.

[jpo234]

Could this mission launch on a  Vulcan (no Atlas 5 in 2022, right?) or would it require a DIVH?

[gongora]

Could this mission launch on a  Vulcan (no Atlas 5 in 2022, right?) or would it require a DIVH?

Can't Vulcan lift more than DIVH?  (And there will still be Atlas 5 in 2022)

[rpapo]

Sorry, I was just speculating based on the price of the contract. Edited OG post.

The extra processing required for NASA could easily account for the extra cost.  Apparently (see tweet earlier) they will also need to certify the FH for their most precious payloads.  More cost to do that.

[Orbiter]

What's interesting here is that this is ~$30 million cheaper than the Atlas V 401.

[zubenelgenubi]

FYI: Psyche project/science thread here.

[ZachS09]

Should the center core be expended, there are two options to recover the side boosters: land them at the SpaceX landing zones at the Cape, or utilize OCISLY and JRTI.

I would estimate about 500 to 550 kilometers downrange for the drone ships should SpaceX decide to go that recovery route.

[vaporcobra]

Should the center core be expended, there are two options to recover the side boosters: land them at the SpaceX landing zones at the Cape, or utilize OCISLY and JRTI.

I would estimate about 500 to 550 kilometers downrange for the drone ships should SpaceX decide to go that recovery route.

Per my post above, there is no rational reason to expend the center core unless Psyche outgrows its mass budget by >50%. Certainly worth discussing alternate recovery possibilities, but not in a specific mission thread.

[redliox]

Wow - major win for Falcon Heavy!

Oh yeah!

Was there any reason that favored 'Heavy for Psyche's mission?

[ugordan]

Was there any reason that favored 'Heavy for Psyche's mission?

SpaceX no longer offers expendable F9 to NASA LSP, which would be needed here.

[Brovane]

Does this mean that the FH has NASA Category 3 certification?  Or does NASA expect the FH will be certified before launch? 

[Vikranth]

Does this mean that the FH has NASA Category 3 certification?  Or does NASA expect the FH will be certified before launch?

Falcon Heavy pretty much ticks that box as Category 3 requires atleast 3 successful consecutive flights from a particular launch vehicle that evolved from a previous Category 3 vehicle.And Falcon Heavy is basically 3 Falcon 9's.So I see no problem in that.

[envy887]

The contract has been updated, the contracted price is $108M, including 13 mission-unique services:

Feb 28 2020 NASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. MOD 121: THIS MODIFICATION AWARDS THE FIRM FIXED PRICE (FFP) LAUNCH SERVICE FOR THE PSYCHE MISSION PURSUANT TO CONTRACT CLAUSE 14.0, ENTITLED LAUNCH SERVICE TASK ORDERING (LSTO) PROCEDURES. THIS FFP INCLUDES THE FALCON HEAVY STANDARD LAUNCH SERVICE AND STANDARD MISSION INTEGRATION AND THIRTEEN (13) MISSION UNIQUE SERVICES (MUSS). THE TOTAL FIRM FIXED PRICE FOR THIS LAUNCH SERVICE TASK ORDER FOR ALL DEFINITIZED WORK UNDER CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER 8 (CLIN 8) IS $108,426,940.

I got that text and screencap of Mod 121 from GovTribe this morning, on the NNK10LB02B page:
https://govtribe.com/award/federal-idv-award/indefinite-delivery-contract-nnk10lb02b#updates-table

But now the page has since been updated and Mod 121 was changed to say:

NASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. THIS MODIFICATION PROVIDES FUNDING WITHIN SCOPE OF LAUNCH SERVICES.