NASA's Psyche asteroid probe will wait several more weeks for launch.
The agency announced on Tuesday (May 24) that a software problem with the
Psyche spacecraft would delay the launch to at least Sept. 20, roughly seven
weeks after the expected Aug. 1 launch. The issue was first reported (opens
in new tab) by Spaceflight Now.
"An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the
spacecraft is functioning as planned," the agency spokesperson told
Space.com. While not elaborating on what the specific issue is, or its
correction, the spokesperson added that the team is "working to identify and
correct the issue."
The close of the launch opportunity also isn't ready for public release,
according to a May 23 tweet from Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist
and principal investigator for the mission at Arizona State University. "Not
yet public, we're working on it," Elkins-Tanton said (opens in new tab) in
response to a question about the launch window, although she noted that the
delay won't affect the spacecraft's arrival date.
After its launch, Psyche is scheduled to swing past Mars nine months later
to pick up speed to arrive at its target asteroid, also called Psyche, in
2026. This will be NASA's first mission to a metallic asteroid.
Psyche recently passed a gauntlet of "shake-and-bake" procedures at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, receiving a clean bill of
health following exposures to vacuum, electrical and magnetic conditions,
and radiation.
"The tests show that, yes, the spacecraft is flightworthy," Randy Lindemann,
the JPL engineer who oversaw Psyche’s dynamics testing, said in an agency
statement in April.
NASA selected Psyche in January 2017 along with a mission called Lucy that
launched in October 2021 and will visit the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter.
Both missions are Discovery-class planetary science missions.
Psyche was initially supposed to launch in 2023 and arrive at its namesake
asteroid in 2030, but NASA later elected to move the launch up a year for an
earlier arrival date.
Psyche is tasked with examining the asteroid for at least 21 months to learn
more about how rare metallic asteroids may play a role in planetary
formation. Engineers will also assess laser communication capabilities as
part of a series of spacecraft tests to test higher-bandwidth communications
over traditional radio.
Tags:
Space & Astrophysics