Psyche is a NASA interplanetary mission to visit the main belt asteroid of the same name, 16 Psyche. Spacecraft will take 4 years and one Mars flyby to reach the asteroid, which is of particular interest due to being comprised mostly of iron and nickel. Psyche is theorized to be a remnant of an early planet's core, and may offer insights into how solar system formed and evolved. The mission is led by Arizona State University, with NASA JPL being responsible for mission management and operations. This launch also includes two secondary payloads: Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE), which will study the Martian atmosphere, and Janus, which will study binary asteroids.
The Falcon Heavy is a variant of the Falcon 9 full thrust launch vehicle and will consist of a standard Falcon 9 rocket core, with two additional boosters derived from the Falcon 9 first stage.See Falcon Details
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has many pads, on the East Coast of the US they own SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral and LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center for their lower inclination launches. They also own SLC-4E at Vandenberg, California for their high inclination launches. Another site is also being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.INFO WIKI
Maxar Technologies says it’s powered on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft for the first time, pushing the asteroid explorer a step closer to the space agency’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch debut. Despite the many challenges and disruptions posed by …