Psyche (spacecraft)

Psyche is a NASA Discovery Program spacecraft launched on 13 October 2023 to orbit and study the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, which may be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission, and the spacecraft was built by the laboratory in collaboration with SSL, the former Space Systems/Loral and later Maxar Space Systems, and Arizona State University. It uses the SSL 1300 bus, with the laboratory adding the command and data handling and telecom subsystems and all flight software. Four SPT-140 Hall-effect thrusters powered by solar arrays drive it, which made it the first interplanetary spacecraft to use that technology. It also carries the Deep Space Optical Communications laser transceiver, the first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. It flew past Mars for a gravity assist on 15 May 2026 and is due to arrive at the asteroid in August 2029.