![]() ![]() Why it matters - Asteroid 12 Psyche is a special specimen. ![]() Delaying the launch to next year extends the journey time, so now instead of four-year trip, getting to 12 Psyche will take six years. If the spacecraft’s trip began this year, it would have reached 12 Psyche by 2026. These aren’t always the same from one year to the next. When planning the journey, the team takes into account the “relative orbital positions” of the asteroid and Earth. Now the earliest arrival is probably 2029. If the spacecraft did fly this year, it would have reached asteroid 12 Psyche in 2026. What’s next - A 2022 launch is no longer a possibility. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, says in the update, “NASA takes the cost and schedule commitments of its projects and programs very seriously.” The space agency will figure out what to do next after it solicits advice from an independent team of experts “from government, academia, and industry.”Īn illustration of asteroid 12 Psyche. “The estimated costs involved to support each of the full range of available mission options are currently being calculated,” according to NASA. So far $717 million of the Psyche mission’s $985 million purse – which includes the rocket – have been spent. What we don't know - It’s still uncertain how much Psyche’s next steps will cost, and how that might affect the budget for other planetary missions. Leshin adds that the hundreds of people who have worked on Psyche will continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s “complex” flight software, making sure it is “thoroughly tested and assessed” before lifting into the sky. “The decision to delay the launch wasn’t easy,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin says in NASA’s mission update statement, “but it is the right one.” To reach this peculiar rock, the spacecraft must travel with precision, clipping the gravitational field of Mars for a subtle course correction that slides the mission into just the right navigational path. Psyche is heading to 12 Psyche, the metallic former core of a planetesimal that currently resides in the Asteroid Belt. What’s new - The Psyche team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California does not have enough time to complete a full checkout of the spacecraft’s software ahead of a launch this year. NASA leaders say they’ll decide Psyche’s next steps over the coming months. NASA hopes the delay won’t result in too many additional expenses. The next sweet spot for a launch, in 20, would push forward Psyche's arrival date at the asteroid by at least three years. Since the Psyche spacecraft won’t be flight-ready by October 11, the launch window for this year is closed for the mission. The ambitious project seeks to study the cold heart of a small planetesimal that was once beating in the early Solar System. On Friday, the space agency announced that their Psyche mission will not fly this year. NASA is delaying the launch of the first-ever mission to a metallic asteroid. ![]()
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