Science |

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA’s Psyche asteroid probe

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The Space Coast witnessed a rare launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Friday on a mission for NASA that also featured the double sonic booms of its returning first-stage boosters.

Flying for only the eighth time ever, and its first ever launch for NASA, the Falcon Heavy, which is essentially three Falcon 9 boosters strapped together, avoided weather concerns for a 10:19 a.m. liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A. The rocket blasted through the haze of heavy cloud cover popping in and out of view through slivers of blue sky on its way into space.

Feel the noize! Ain't nothin' but a good time. All aboard the #MissionToPsyche! Next stop: A metal world. 🤘 pic.twitter.com/fUDbHrXHDC

— NASA (@NASA) October 13, 2023

Teams begged off a Thursday attempt as heavy rains and tornado-spawning winds moved through Central Florida, but the front pulled away enough moisture to allow for calm winds on takeoff. It marked the 55th launch from the Space Coast in 2023.

Two of the three boosters came back for a recovery landing at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 and 2, and with it, signature sonic booms on reentry were heard and felt along the Space Coast and surrounding counties.

At the launch site, a pair of double booms seconds apart set off car alarms and bounced off the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, making an eerie whistling sound reminiscent of bottle rockets taking flight.

Long wait nearly over for Psyche asteroid probe’s Space Coast launch

The payload is NASA’s Psyche probe on a six-year, 2.2-billion-mile trip to the asteroid also named Psyche. Scientists think it is a rare metal-rich asteroid that could reveal answers to how planets were formed in our solar system.

“So thrilling, so exciting to see that rocket light,” said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Laurie Leshin. JPL is managing the mission and had to work through unexpected delays that forced it to miss a launch window in 2022 that would have cut two years off its trip to Psyche. “There’s nothing like it, and then you feel it. And then the emotions really start.”

Welcome to the jungle, #MissionToPsyche. Separation confirmed from its @SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The spacecraft is on its way to a metal-rich asteroid. pic.twitter.com/vqZ6fHD6Kw

— NASA (@NASA) October 13, 2023

The satellite was released from the rocket’s second stage just more than an hour after launch, and teams received its first signal from the spacecraft just minutes later.

The solar panels then successfully deployed and with full acquisition of signal, teams now will spend about 100 days making sure everything is working as expected before it begins its journey first to Mars, which it will reach in about 2 1/2 years to perform a slingshot maneuver for its final 3 1/2-year run to arrive to the asteroid in August 2029.

The satellite was built on a frame from Maxar Technologies, which is using a unique electric propulsion for a deep-space mission for the first time, relying on nearly 2,200 pounds of xenon gas that will leave a light blue glow as it spits out ions nearly nonstop between launch and arrival to the asteroid propelling it up to 124,000 mph.

Psyche flight systems manager Mark Brown, also based at JPL, has overseen the spacecraft’s development and said the launch was satisfying for the team that had already been working on the mission for six years.

“The end of a long road for us developers, but then there’s the start of the journey,” he said. “We’re very confident in how the spacecraft is going to behave. … There’s always a little bit of nail biting-that goes on with these things because you can’t exactly test that exact flight to space, but we’re quite confident.”

The $700 million mission won NASA’s approval in 2017 to be the 14th Discovery Program mission, joining the likes of Mars Pathfinder, Kepler space telescope and Lunar Prospector.

“It really leans into NASA’s mission statement,” said NASA  Associate Administrator Bob Cabana during a Wednesday press conference. “They explore the unknown part. We’re going to explore to increase our knowledge and discover things we don’t know.”

Once the probe reaches Psyche, it will begin a 26-month mission into late 2031 orbiting at different altitudes to observe the roughly 173-mile-wide asteroid that scientists think is made of nickel and iron.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy set for 1st NASA launch to explore mysterious asteroid Psyche

It’s one of only nine metallic asteroids discovered among more than 1 million to date in our solar system, and it’s by far the largest. NASA has also never visited a metallic asteroid. This one sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter orbiting the sun between 235 million to 309 million miles away.

“We hope that when we get to this metal world, it will just kind of reveal a treasure trove of scientific discovery and potential answers to our deepest questions about the solar system history and our place in it,” said NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicki Fox.

One hypothesis suggests Psyche is similar to the metal core found at the center of Earth and every other rocky planet in the solar system. That could reveal details about something scientists can’t get to, but it could be something else entirely.

“The origin of the asteroid itself is a mystery, and we hope to uncover that when we get there in 2029 because finding out where it came from will teach us about the formation of our solar system,” Fox said. “Right now, scientists believe that the asteroid Psyche could be part of a metal-rich interior from the remnants of a small planet known as a planetesimal. But there’s also a belief that it could be a totally new type of primordial solar system object that’s never been seen before.”