The Prelaunch News Conference ahead of launch for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, a mission to a unique metal-rich asteroid. Psyche will travel nearly six years and about 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) – to an asteroid of the same name, which is orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe Psyche could be part of the core of a planetesimal, likely made of iron-nickel metal. The ore will not be mined but studied from orbit in hopes of giving researchers a better idea of what may make up Earth’s core. The Psyche spacecraft also will host a pioneering technology demonstration: NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) experiment. This laser communications system will operate for the first two years of Psyche’s journey. Launch is targeted for 10:16 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 12, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. Participants include NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana; Nicola Fox, associate administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; Tim Dunn, senior launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program; Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA satellite missions, SpaceX; Henry Stone, Psyche project manager, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Arlena Moses, launch weather officer, U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 45 Weather Squadron.
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