Is there a reason for suggesting 1082 & 1083 rather than reusing 1073 & 1076?
NASA’s Psyche Mission Enters Home Stretch Before LaunchJuly 18, 2023Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5.With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.“The team and I are now counting down the days to launch,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Our focus has shifted to safely completing the final mechanical closeout of the spacecraft and preparing the team for operations. The team is conducting numerous training activities to ensure that we are prepared and ready. It’s a very busy time, but everyone is very excited and looking forward to the launch.”Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy (the first interplanetary launch for that rocket) from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. PDT) on Oct. 5, with additional opportunities scheduled through Oct. 25. After escaping Earth’s gravity, the Psyche spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to asteroid Psyche.Measuring about 173 miles (279 kilometers) at its widest point, the asteroid Psyche presents a unique opportunity to explore a metal-rich body that may be part of a core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend at least 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.Next StepsBut first, a team of 30 or so engineers and technicians will wrap up the assembly, test, and launch operations phase of the mission. The team recently finished several weeks of functional testing of the science instruments as well as the spacecraft hardware and software.After removing the last of the cables that snake around the hardware for testing, they’ll “close out” the spacecraft by reinstalling some exterior panels that had been removed for access and complete the thermal blanketing. Later in July, they will integrate and test the deployment of the enormous solar arrays. Then, in mid-August, a crew will begin slowly loading all 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of propellant – the neutral gas xenon – onto the spacecraft over the course of a couple weeks.Luis Dominguez, the systems and electrical lead for assembly, test, and launch operations, is usually based at JPL but has been working full time at the Cape since early June. “We are moving forward,” he said, “and we’re confident that when we’re on the pad, we’ll be ready to hit the button. For all of us, we’ll be excited to launch this bird.”More About the MissionArizona State University leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.JPL also is providing a technology demonstration instrument called Deep Space Optical Communications that will fly on Psyche in order to test high-data-rate laser communications that could be used by future NASA missions.Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:http://www.nasa.gov/psycheandhttps://psyche.asu.edu/
☀🎶Here comes the sun!Well…solar panels for #MissionToPsyche!🛰Technicians are ready to install the newly-arrived panels part of the solar electric propulsion system that will power the spacecraft on its journey to the Psyche asteroid.Little darlin’, it’s all right!🎶
1509-EX-ST-2023FH Mission 1564 (Psyche)Expendable center, side RTLS
Less than 70 days: On Oct. 5 @NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission is set to fly into space from Cape Canaveral, FL 🚀 The Psyche spacecraft🛰️was transported from @NASA_JPL in California, to the launch site @NASAKennedy with our high-tech spacecraft container - a mobile clean room👇
A new Falcon booster was lifted today at SpaceX in McGregor, Texas ahead of testing. @Alexphysics13 thinks this is B1084 which should be the next Falcon Heavy center core.Watch testing LIVE at:nsf.live/mcgregor
It's our spacecraft showing one solar array stowed, being worked on in Florida by the great @MissionToPsyche team. Coming into close-out now and then fueling and mating with the rocket! Just over two months to launch. #PI_Daily Photo: NASA/Isaac Watson
Everything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]All of the major components for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket are undergoing launch preparations at the Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to Jim Hall, a senior mission manger for NASA's Launch Services Program, which brokers rides for NASA spacecraft on commercial rockets.The Falcon Heavy's two reusable side boosters for the Psyche mission returned from their previous launch on July 28 with a commercial communications satellite. SpaceX is refurbishing those boosters—each with three flights on their record—for the Psyche launch. The side-mounted rockets will be recovered again at SpaceX's Cape Canaveral landing zones after the Psyche launch, and they'll be reused and expended on the launch of NASA's Europa Clipper mission in October 2024.The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]
B1064 and B1065 for this mission (confirmed again), will also be reused (and expended) on the Europa Clipper launch:QuoteEverything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]<snip>The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]
Everything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]<snip>The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]
B1079.1 instead of B1084.1? Has B1084 been transported from McGregor to the Cape?Quote from: GewoonLukas_ on 08/11/2023 08:00 pmB1064 and B1065 for this mission (confirmed again), will also be reused (and expended) on the Europa Clipper launch:QuoteEverything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]<snip>The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]NextSpaceflight, updated August 11?:Expendable center core B1079.1
#NASA has opened media accreditation opportunities for the upcoming launch of the long-anticipated #Psyche mission, due to fly on a #SpaceX #FalconHeavy from historic LC-39A NET October 5.👉 https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-psyche-launch-mission-will-study-an-asteroid📸: Max Evans (@_mgde_) for @NASASpaceflight
Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 08/11/2023 09:29 pmB1079.1 instead of B1084.1? Has B1084 been transported from McGregor to the Cape?Quote from: GewoonLukas_ on 08/11/2023 08:00 pmB1064 and B1065 for this mission (confirmed again), will also be reused (and expended) on the Europa Clipper launch:QuoteEverything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]<snip>The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]NextSpaceflight, updated August 11?:Expendable center core B1079.1B1084 is still vertical at McGregor --> https://nsf.live/mcgregor
Quote from: GewoonLukas_ on 08/11/2023 09:46 pmQuote from: zubenelgenubi on 08/11/2023 09:29 pmB1079.1 instead of B1084.1? Has B1084 been transported from McGregor to the Cape?Quote from: GewoonLukas_ on 08/11/2023 08:00 pmB1064 and B1065 for this mission (confirmed again), will also be reused (and expended) on the Europa Clipper launch:QuoteEverything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid8/11/2023[...]<snip>The center core of the Falcon Heavy rocket slated to launch Psyche is also in Florida for final launch preps, as are the two new aeroshells for the rocket's payload fairing. This will be the eighth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first Falcon Heavy with a payload heading for another planetary body.[...]NextSpaceflight, updated August 11?:Expendable center core B1079.1B1084 is still vertical at McGregor --> https://nsf.live/mcgregoraccording to NXF b1081 is the center core for psyche and b1084 is center core for ussf-52
