How do the alternative launch windows affect the potential booster recovery profiles for the mission? IIRC Psyche was originally intended to launch on a F9 before the shift to an earlier 2022 launch window. Now that they are shifting back to a later window, I wonder if there will be enough capacity to land all 3 cores?
<snip>Interesting that, as has been repeatedly pointed out in this site and elsewhere, Psyche is the sister mission to Lucy, which was heralded as having completed its development phase in record time, slightly ahead of schedule and under budget. Inquiring minds wonder how such a similar mission has run into such problems instead, putting straight cancellation publicly on the table.
Inquiring minds wonder how such a similar mission...
Oct 28, 2022NASA Continues Psyche Asteroid MissionNASA announced Friday the agency decided its Psyche mission will go forward, targeting a launch period opening on Oct. 10, 2023.Earlier this year, Psyche missed its planned 2022 launch period as a result of mission development problems, leading to an internal review of whether the mission would be able to overcome these issues to successfully launch in 2023.This continuation/termination review was informed by a project-proposed mission replan and a separate independent review, commissioned in June by NASA and the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, that investigated causes for the delay.“I appreciate the hard work of the independent review board and the JPL-led team toward mission success,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The lessons learned from Psyche will be implemented across our entire mission portfolio. I am excited about the science insights Psyche will provide during its lifetime and its promise to contribute to our understanding of our own planet’s core.”The independent review board is still finalizing its report, which, along with NASA’s response, will be shared publicly once complete.The mission team continues to complete testing of the spacecraft’s flight software in preparation for the 2023 launch date. The new flight profile is similar to the one originally planned for August 2022, using a Mars gravity assist in 2026 to send the spacecraft on its way to the asteroid Psyche. With an October 2023 launch date, the Psyche spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid in August 2029.“I’m extremely proud of the Psyche team,” said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “During this review, they have demonstrated significant progress already made toward the future launch date. I am confident in the plan moving forward and excited by the unique and important science this mission will return.”NASA selected Psyche in 2017 to investigate a previously unexplored metal-rich asteroid of the same name. It is part of the agency’s Discovery Program, a line of low-cost, competitive missions led by a single principal investigator. NASA continues to assess options for its Janus mission exploring twin binary asteroid systems, which was originally scheduled to launch on the same SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as Psyche. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, is integrated into the Psyche spacecraft and will continue as planned on the new launch date.Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is managing the launch. Psyche is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.For more information about the Psyche mission, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/psyche-end-
This illustration, updated as of June 2020, depicts NASA's Psyche spacecraft.Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
https://twitter.com/ltelkins/status/1587606517582336000QuoteWhat a launch! I got to sit on console to prepare for @MissionToPsyche's Falcon Heavy launch in 11 months. We ran outside to watch the side boosters land, less than a mile away, and wow, what a sonic boom! AWESOME! #PI_DailyInteresting lead time on Psyche’s launch preparations.
What a launch! I got to sit on console to prepare for @MissionToPsyche's Falcon Heavy launch in 11 months. We ran outside to watch the side boosters land, less than a mile away, and wow, what a sonic boom! AWESOME! #PI_Daily
NASA has removed its Janus asteroid mission from the #MissionToPsyche’s 2023 launch manifest after an assessment determined that Janus would not be on the required trajectory to meet its science requirements as a result of Psyche’s new launch period. More: go.nasa.gov/3hWY50Z
Janus Mission Removed from 2023 Psyche Launch ManifestNASA has removed its Janus mission from the Psyche mission’s 2023 launch manifest after an assessment determined that Janus would not be on the required trajectory to meet its science requirements as a result of Psyche’s new launch period.The Janus mission, which was designed to send twin small satellite spacecraft to study two separate binary asteroid systems, was originally manifested as a ride-along on the Psyche mission’s missed 2022 launch. The new October 2023 launch period, however, cannot deliver the two spacecraft to either the mission’s original targets or to any appropriate target to reach their science objectives.The spacecraft currently reside at Lockheed Martin, which designed and built them, and mission design assessments are ongoing for potential future science targets. The University of Colorado Boulder leads the Janus science team.The small satellite mission is part of NASA’s Small, Innovative Missions for PLanetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, which provides opportunities for low-cost, high risk science missions that are responsive to requirements for flexibility. These lower cost missions serve as an ideal platform for technical and architecture innovation, contributing to NASA’s science research and technology development objectives. SIMPLEx mission investigations are managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the Discovery Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is managing the launch services for Psyche.Author Erin MortonPosted on November 18, 2022Categories Janus, NASA, Psyche
NASA says that the Psyche mission has a launch window on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Oct. 5 to Oc. 25 this year. Due to the new launch date, the spacecraft will now arrive the metal rich astronaut asteroid in August 2029.
Psyche photos taken December 8th at the Cape and released by NASA Kennedy
The Road to October 2023: NASA’s Psyche Has an Updated Mission PlanMarch 29NASA’s Psyche mission, which will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, is on track to launch in October 2023 after a one-year delay to complete critical testing. The launch period will open Oct. 5 and close Oct. 25. The asteroid, which lies in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may be the remains of a core of a planetesimal, a building block of a rocky planet.[...]Engineers and technicians now are completing the final verification and validation of the system-level elements of the fully integrated spacecraft. During this time, tests are performed on the spacecraft as well as in the mission’s three system test beds.Later this spring, engineers will run a series of “day in the life” tests, when they use test beds to operate Psyche for five to seven days at a time with the same commands that they will use when it is in flight. They will run scenarios in which operations go as planned as well as when operations meet challenges.The spacecraft is currently in a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In June, the mission begins its final assembly, test, and launch operations, and engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will return to Astrotech and work there until launch. Assembly of the spacecraft is complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers, which may be reinstalled before June. A final suite of tests will be run on the spacecraft, after which it will be fueled and then mated to the launch vehicle just prior to launch. Psyche will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, intended to test high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft.
NASA says, after an independent review process, its Psyche mission to a metal asteroid is back on track. Will launch on a Falcon Heavy in October 2023.
Jupiter 3:Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 06/23/2023 03:03 amNextSpaceflight, updated June 22:NET JulyCenter core = 1079.1Swapping launch slot and center core with USSF-52.USSF-52:Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 06/23/2023 02:59 amNextSpaceflight, updated June 22:NET SeptemberCenter core = 1074.1Swapping launch slot and center core with Jupiter 3.
NextSpaceflight, updated June 22:NET JulyCenter core = 1079.1Swapping launch slot and center core with USSF-52.
NextSpaceflight, updated June 22:NET SeptemberCenter core = 1074.1Swapping launch slot and center core with Jupiter 3.
Likely side cores change? The plan was to use USSF-52 side cores, launching NET July, again for Psyche. Those launches are now separated by a month or less.Solution?: SpaceX delivers B1082 and B1083 as new side cores?
