NASA’s plans to probe the metal-rich, potato-shaped asteroid named Psyche with a spacecraft of the same name could face further delays of a planned launch from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket this year.
Continuing problems with the spacecraft’s flight software could threaten the launch window that runs from Sept. 20-Oct. 11, a window that was already delayed from Aug. 1 to allow the Psyche mission team to identify and correct the issue.
“The team is evaluating its ability to meet a schedule to launch in 2022,” NASA posted to its website. “If it is determined that launch in 2022 is not possible, a full range of actions for how to proceed will be considered.”
The payload was on tap to be the next potential flight for SpaceX’s powerhouse Falcon Heavy, which for now is the most powerful rocket currently in business, at least before NASA’s Space Launch System rocket or SpaceX’s new Starship with Super Heavy take flight.
To date, Falcon Heavy, which produces more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, has only flown three times, and the Psyche mission would use its launch capability to send the probe to the asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft arrived to KSC in April.
The asteroid Psyche, with a nickel-iron core, orbits the sun beyond Mars anywhere from 235 million to 309 million miles away. That’s 2.5 to 3 times farther away from the sun that Earth is. The mission, which is being run Arizona State University will be managed out of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Scientists are interested in it because metallic cores are what scientists believe is at the center of rocky planets including Earth, so Psyche they hypothesize is representative of one of the building blocks of the solar system.
If NASA can hit the 2022 launch target, it would be on track to proceed toward Mars in 2023 where it will get a gravity assist, and then arrive to the asteroid in 2026. It will then spend 21 months in orbit mapping the asteroid’s properties.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which also sent the Lucy probe from the Space Coast last fall on its way to asteroids that orbit the sun in front of and behind Jupiter. Other Discovery mission have included Mars Pathfinder, Kepler space telescope and the Lunar Prospector.
