psyche_solar_array_integration.jpg The first of two solar arrays for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has been extended inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 20, 2023. Credits: NASA/Isaac Watson

Lea este anuncio en espanol NASA invita a los medios de comunicación a ver la nave espacial Psyche | NASA

NASA invites media to view the Psyche spacecraft at 9 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 11, at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida.

Media will have an opportunity to photograph Psyche, a spacecraft which will explore a metal-rich asteroid to gain insights into planetary formation. Riding with Psyche will be a pioneering technology demonstration: NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment. Subject matter experts for both projects will be available for interviews.

Media interested in attending this event must apply by 4 p.m. EDT Monday, July 31, and submit their request online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

For questions about accreditation, please email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s agencywide media accreditation policy is available here.

Psyche is targeting launch at 10:38 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 5, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Facility Access

Due to stringent spacecraft cleanliness requirements, this invitation is limited to 20 members of the media with no more than two per media organization. This event is open only to U.S. citizens who possess a government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license, and proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.

Media who attend this event must comply with strict clean room guidelines, and failure to do so will prevent participation in media day. This includes wearing specific clean room garments; avoiding cologne, cosmetics, and high-heeled shoes; cleaning camera equipment under the supervision or assistance of contamination control specialists; and placing all electronics in airplane mode in the designated areas near the spacecraft. NASA will provide detailed guidance to approved reporters.

About Psyche, DSOC

The Psyche mission is a journey to a metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be exposed nickel-iron core material of an early planetesimal, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets – including Earth – scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets' rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth's core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets.

DSOC will be NASA’s furthest-ever test of high-bandwidth optical communications. DSOC will send and receive test data from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser, which can transmit data at 10 to 100 times the bandwidth of conventional radio wave systems used on spacecraft today. As the first demonstration of deep-space laser communications, DSOC is not relaying mission data from Psyche. Although, what the team learns from DSOC could support future agency missions, including humanity's next giant leap: When NASA sends astronauts to Mars.

The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is managing the launch service. Psyche is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

JPL manages DSOC for the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation program within the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.

For more information about Psyche and DSOC, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/psyche

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo, 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan, 256-930-1371.

Press Contacts

Leejay Lockhart / Laura Aguiar
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov / laura.aguiar@nasa.gov

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