• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Humanity’s Journey To A Metal-Rich Asteroid Launches Today. Here’s How To Watch

October 12, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Update 10/12/23: Bad weather has delayed the launch of Psyche. The launch window opens again tomorrow, October 13 at 10:19 am (2:19 pm UTC). 

Today, NASA is launching the first-ever mission to a metal-rich asteroid. The Psyche spacecraft will travel 3.5 billion kilometers (2.2 billion miles) to visit its namesake, asteroid Psyche, thought to be the most expensive known asteroid.  

Advertisement

A metallic and silicate asteroid, potentially up to 60 percent of Psyche is made of metal. This is so much metal that for a long time it was thought Psyche was the fully metallic core of an almost-planet that was then broken apart in collisions.

The asteroid’s origin is now believed to be more complex but to solve this mystery, we’ll need a spacecraft to get up close to find out. Psyche the spacecraft won’t reach Psyche the asteroid until 2029, but then hopefully it will start to spill its secrets. 

When is the Psyche mission launching? 

The current schedule is NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket today October 12, 2023. The launch window opens at 10:16 am EDT (2:16 pm UTC).

It will go on a slow trek across the inner Solar System, passing by Mars in May 2026 for a gravity assist. The foray near the Red Planet will give it a boost to travel all the way to the other edge of the main asteroid belt, where Psyche resides.

What is the Psyche mission studying?

The spacecraft is the size of a small van and it is equipped with a variety of instruments to fully understand the composition of the asteroid, and with that, its origin. 

The spacecraft will reach the asteroid in July 2029 with the goal of starting the science mission the following month. The primary mission will last for two years where Psyche the spacecraft will take pictures, map the surface, and unveil the chemistry of Psyche the asteroid.

The spacecraft has also got a side mission. Attached to it is a technology demonstration: NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications. This system aims to test the use of lasers to transmit communication with high bandwidth beyond the orbit of the Moon. This could mean more data sent back to Earth by deep-space missions. The system will be tested in the first two years of travel but won’t be used in the primary mission.

How to watch the Psyche mission launch today

NASA will be streaming a live launch broadcast with commentary from 9:30 am EDT (1:30 pm UTC) today, October 12. The launch window opens at 10.16 am EDT (2:16 pm UTC) so showtime should be around then.

Advertisement



You can watch the live stream on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and NASA’s website.

“The team has worked tirelessly to prepare the spacecraft for its journey to a one-of-a-kind asteroid,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 

“All spacecraft systems, science instruments, and software have been integrated and extensively tested, and the spacecraft is fully configured for flight. We look forward to the launch and – more importantly – to accomplishing the mission’s objectives, marking yet another historic voyage of scientific discovery.”

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Soccer – Liverpool’s Klopp says Van Dijk fit, Keita fine after return to club
  2. Buy now, pay later plans not shrinking credit card loans, says TransUnion
  3. What Would Happen To Humanity If All Microbes Suddenly Disappeared?
  4. IFLScience The Big Questions: How Is Climate Change Affecting Polar Bear Populations?

Source Link: Humanity’s Journey To A Metal-Rich Asteroid Launches Today. Here’s How To Watch

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • How Much Of The Sun’s Radiation Is At Wavelengths We Can See?
  • Alcohol And Dementia Risk: There Is No Safe Level Of Drinking
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Have Been Caught In Perseverance Rover Photo
  • Friendly Falkland Islands “Wolf” Was Actually The Last Stronghold Of A Fox Domesticated In South America
  • Wolf-Dog Hybrid Found In Greece For First Time, Marking A New Twist In Wolves’ Return To Europe
  • Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist George Smoot, Who Made The First “Baby Pictures” Of The Universe, Dies Aged 80
  • The Most Powerful Odd Radio Circle’s Intersecting Rings Are Giving Us The Finger
  • Over $1 Million Of Shipwrecked Gold and Silver Coins Recovered From Florida’s Coast
  • Astronaut Don Pettit Shares Image Of The “Belt Of Venus” From The International Space Station
  • Deathwatch Beetles: Bad Omens In The Night? Nope, They’re Just Horny
  • Why Do So Many Nobel Laureates Develop “Nobel Disease”?
  • Does The Moon Affect The Menstrual Cycle? Yes, New Study Claims
  • The Second Closest Asteroid Flyby Of Earth Ever Recorded Just Whizzed Over Antarctica
  • New Theory Reveals Shackleton’s Legendary Ship “Endurance” Was Doomed To Sink In 1915
  • Revolutionary Discovery In Immune System Regulation Leads To Nobel Prize In Medicine Win
  • These May Be The First Animals To Evolve On Planet Earth, Skin Cells Have Been Used To Create Fertilizable Eggs, And Much More This Week
  • The Largest Eagle To Ever Live Had A 3-Meter Wingspan And Ate Moa For Lunch
  • “Tangy And Herbaceous” Yogurt Made With Forest Ants – And They’re Not For Extra Protein
  • This Bizarre Jurassic Reptile Is A Weird Mix Of Snake And Lizard
  • Mummified Cheetahs, Skin Cells Turn Into Eggs, And Almost Life On Enceladus
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version