Psyche (spacecraft)

Common card · No. 237344

Psyche ( SY-kee) is a NASA Discovery Program space mission launched on October 13, 2023, to explore the origin of planetary cores by orbiting and studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche beginning in 2029. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages the project. The spacecraft will orbit the asteroid from August 5, 2029, to October 31, 2031, spending 817 days in orbit. Psyche uses solar-powered Hall-effect thrusters for propulsion and orbital maneuvering, the first interplanetary spacecraft to use that technology. It is also the first mission to use laser optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system.

Read on Wikipedia · Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin, Public domain