Psyche Spacecraft Prelaunch Processing Underway

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers.

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

NASA ID: KSC-20230626-PH-FMX01_0105 larger image