NASA on track for Psyche launch on Falcon Heavy after missteps forced delay

Tribune Content Agency

Fallout from last year’s delay to the launch of the Psyche asteroid probe led to an independent review of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its handling of the mission. The leader of that review says the team has been impressed with NASA’s reaction as the launch is back on track for an October liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center.

“The [review board] recognizes that our JPL institution findings or recommendations were challenging and really require considerable time to complete the required corrective actions,” said retired aerospace executive A. Thomas Young. “We were impressed by the results we observed that were well beyond our high expectations.”

Psyche was supposed to launch last summer so that it could rendezvous with a metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche that lies between Mars and Jupiter in 2026. But because it missed the launch window last year, this year’s launch, if it goes well, means it won’t arrive at the asteroid until 2029.

The launch window runs from Oct. 5-23 and the probe itself has been in Florida since last April, but additional work was required to make it ready that forced it to miss the 2022 launch opportunities. Before the delay, the mission cost had topped $850 million for the development, operation and science. Launch costs to use the Falcon Heavy were separate.

The review board targeted both issues with Psyche probe team and the JPL based at Caltech as a whole that it said contributed to the delay. The board released its findings last November and a review of NASA and JPL’s response in an update released May 30.

Changes made since the delay include reorganization of the JPL workforce and improving senior management oversight of the mission.

JPL has also been able to bring back a workforce that had been diminished because of resignations that NASA leaders blamed on both COVID-19 pandemic and competition from private industry. The pandemic-related policy to allow team members to work from home has been dialed back so team members spend more time on site each week.

The delay in the Psyche mission has also been blamed for pulling potential talent from another JPL mission called VERITAS that was headed to Venus but is now on hold.

“It didn’t ramp it up as expected and Psyche stayed ramped up longer,” said JPL Director Laurie Leshin, who said Psyche has about 160 people working on it still. “Some of those may have gone off to work on VERITAS had they launched.”

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate made the call to delay VERITAS based on the independent review board findings.

“No one wants to delay any of the missions and particularly a mission that was actually doing well along their planned schedule,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division within the directorate.

She said while there were some budget concerns, staffing issues at JPL were the main reason behind VERITAS’ delay.

It was clear that we wanted to try and alleviate some of the stress and stressors and pressures out at JPL in a way that headquarters could have some control over. And in doing that, we wanted to look within the planetary portfolios and stuff where the Psyche mission resided. And we also wanted to look toward those missions that were earliest in their development.”

Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator over the Science Mission Directorate, said she is pleased with NASA’s response since the mission management shortcomings came to light.

“We know the work is not over. As we move forward, we will work with JPL to ensure these implemented changes continue to be prioritized to position Psyche and the other missions in JPL’s portfolio for success,” she said.

Lessons learned from JPL’s Psyche missteps will be applied to other NASA missions such as Europa Clipper and Mars Sample Return, Fox said.

For Psyche, launch is just four months away, and the probe will head toward Mars for a gravity assist to make it to the final destination as Psyche orbits the sun beyond Mars anywhere from 235 million to 309 million miles away, about 2.5 to 3 times farther away from the sun that Earth is.

Once it arrives in August 2029, the probe will orbit for 26 months using an imager, magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer among instruments to examine for the first time a world not made of rock and ice, but metal.

Researchers with Arizona State University are heading up the science portion of the mission.

The potato-shaped celestial body notable for its nickel-iron core has an average diameter of 140 miles, or roughly the size of Daytona Beach to Tampa along Interstate 4. Metallic cores are what scientists believe is at the center of rocky planets including Earth, so Psyche could be representative of one of the building blocks of the solar system.

The asteroid was first discovered on March 17, 1852, by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, named for the Greek goddess of the soul who in mythology was born human, but married the Greek god of love Eros, aka Cupid.

Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which also sent the Lucy probe from the Space Coast in 2021 on its way to asteroids that orbit the sun in front of and behind Jupiter. Other Discovery missions have included Mars Pathfinder, Kepler space telescope and the Lunar Prospector.

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