NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida this August on its journey to a metal-rich asteroid estimated to be worth $10-quintillion. The press got a chance to see the van-sized spacecraft up-close in a clean room at the Propulsion Laboratory yesterday. It may not look like anything special, but this spacecraft is designed to handle violent shaking, the jolt of separating from the launch vehicle, and the extreme temperature fluctuations in and out of the Sun’s rays. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Engineers will do their best to replicate these harsh conditions in a rigorous series of tests to ensure ahead of the launch this August to ensure that the spacecraft can withstand them. This includes a gauntlet of electromagnetic, thermal-vacuum, vibration, shock, and acoustic testing at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The 1.5-billion mile journey will see the spacecraft reach the asteroid in 2026, where it will spend 21 months collecting science data during progressively lower orbits.
- Bring to life the rocket launch that took humans to the moon with the meter-high (approximately 1: 110 scale) model rocket of the NASA Apollo Saturn V
- The Saturn V rocket kit includes 3 removable rocket stages (first, s-ii second, and s-ivb third) below the launch escape system, command and service...
- After building the Saturn V rocket, you can display the spacecraft horizontally with 3 stands; The Lunar Lander docks with the command and service...
Welcoming reporters into the clean room gives the public a glimpse of the years of hard work that have gone into this mission. Thanks to the Psyche team’s determination and skill, we’re in the final stretch of readying the spacecraft to head out to our launch site in Florida,” said Brian Bone, Psyche’s assembly, test, and launch operations manager at JPL.
