A tango of 27 Merlins.This @CanonUSAimaging 80D and lens battled the onslaught of torrential rain and thunderstorms for two days - survived to photograph Falcon Heavy embarking on its battle with Earth’s gravity.Psyche is on its way!📸 - @NASASpaceflight #missiontopsyche
Beating Friday the 13th, Falcon Heavy punched through the clouds beginning an interplanetary journey to unlock the mysteries of the early solar system📸: Me for @WeAreSpaceScout
I heard you guys are a fan of the center core throttle down! In that case, have even more!!📸: Me for @WeAreSpaceScout
Falcon Heavy launches Psyche🚀 my one remote camera that turned out...I love it!🙌
Grateful to SpaceX for the opportunity to set cameras at Landing Zone 1 for today’s Falcon Heavy launch and booster landings.Rain got the best of me (and most of us) with neither of my two cameras producing usable imagery. Live, learn, improve, and onto the next one 🤙
NASA KennedyKSC-20231013-PH-CSH01_001 NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soars into the sky after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. This daytime long exposure photo was taken from Kennedy’s Press Site near the historic countdown clock. 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. Photo credit: NASA/Cory HustonNASA image use policy.
Slo-mo video of Falcon Heavy launching off the pad
What goes up eventually comes back down. If you're a Falcon 9, you're likely landing somewhere. And if you're the #Psyche spacecraft, you've just embarked on a ~2.2 billion-mile journey to the main asteroid belt for science and discovery—two pillars of NASA's mission.Congratulations to @NASA & @MissionToPsyche for persevering along the long and winding road to launch. You've made it! May you have fair winds and following seas on your cosmic journey.📸 me for @considercosmos
SpaceX particularly noting launch vehicle reliability requiredhttps://twitter.com/spacex/status/1233502921469370368QuoteFalcon 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/2VCFdapEdit to add: interesting ...https://twitter.com/stephenclark1/status/1233507408502251521QuoteNASA says the launch of Psyche will NOT utilize previously-flown boosters on the Falcon Heavy.
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
NASA says the launch of Psyche will NOT utilize previously-flown boosters on the Falcon Heavy.
Falcon Heavy has arrived at the pad (NSF Spacecoast Live View)Again, new nosecones for B1064 and B1065 (also happened on ViaSat-3 Americas and EchoStar XXIV / Jupiter-3). Are there some reusability issues with the Falcon Heavy nosecones?Edit to add: SpaceX' "Falcon Heavy in the hangar at LC-39A" Tweet / X Post shows soot on the nosecones, indicating they've flown before.
How did the mission go from "Hell No preflown boosters" to "Sure, three prior flights is OK"?
I probably missed a memo, could someone point it out to me?
CelesTrak has GP data for 2 objects from the launch (2023-157) of Psyche atop a Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral on Oct 13 at 1419 UTC: https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/10/13/falcon-heavy-launches-nasas-psyche-asteroid-probe/. Data for the launch can be found at: https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/table.php?INTDES=2023-157.
In his Stop Press edition of Jonathan's Space Report, Jonathan McDowell wrote the following."The second stage reignited at 1513 UTC to reach an Earth escape trajectory of 794 x -36991 km x 30.1 deg. Coasting on this hyperbola, Psyche and rocket stage will leave the Earth's gravitational sphere of influence on Oct 16 and enter a 1.0 x 2.5 AU x 1.1 deg solar orbit en route to a Mars flyby in 2026."I wonder if anyone can explain the nomenclature here, specifically the "-36991 km" on a hyperbolic trajectory. - Ed Kyle
Notice that the distance to apoapsis is negative, since e > 1. This is how we determine that the apoapsis lies on the virtual trajectory, to the right of the occupied trajectory.
