ksc-20230720-ph-ilw01_0023orig.jpg Credits: NASA

Media accreditation is now open for the upcoming launch of NASA�??s Psyche spacecraft, for a mission to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 10:38 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 5, for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency�??s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Media accreditation deadlines for the Psyche launch are as follows:

• U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media must apply by 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
• International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29.

Media accreditation requests should be submitted online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

A copy of NASA�??s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact NASA Kennedy�??s newsroom: 321-867-2468.

The asteroid Psyche may be part of a core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet. 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. Psyche will offer a unique window into the process that created terrestrial planets.

NASA will post updates on launch preparations to prepare the spacecraft for its 2.5-billion-mile (4-billion-kilometer) journey on the Psyche blog. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, called NASA�??s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment, which will be NASA�??s furthest-ever test of high-bandwidth optical communications.

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

For more information about Psyche and DSOC, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/psyche

-end-

Press Contacts

Alise Fisher / Erin Morton
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-805-9393
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / erin.morton@nasa.gov

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

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