NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

Psyche

Launch Time
Fri Oct 13, 2023 14:19 UTC

Rocket

Falcon Heavy
SpaceX
Status: Active
Price: $97.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 22,819 kN
Payload to LEO: 63,800 kg
Payload to GTO: 26,700 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 2
Rocket Height: 70.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 5.2 m
Fairing Height: 13.0 m

Vehicles

B1064

Flight #4
Landing Zone 1
76 day turnaround
244th Falcon recovery attempt
232nd successful Falcon recovery attempt
159th consecutive successful Falcon recovery

B1065

Flight #4
Landing Zone 2
76 day turnaround
245th Falcon recovery attempt
233rd successful Falcon recovery attempt
160th consecutive successful Falcon recovery

B1079

Flight #1
Expendable

Mission Details

Psyche

Psyche is an orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche. Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University is the Principal Investigator who proposed this mission for NASA's Discovery Program. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will manage the project.

16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid and is thought to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet, the remnant of a violent collision with another object that stripped off its outer crust. Radar observations of the asteroid from Earth indicate an iron–nickel composition. On 4 January 2017, the Psyche mission was selected for NASA's Discovery #14 mission

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 2,600 kg
Heliocentric Orbit

Location

LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA

Stats

2023

165th orbital launch attempt

SpaceX

276th mission
72nd mission of 2023
270th successful mission
242nd consecutive successful mission

Falcon Heavy

8th mission
4th mission of 2023
8th successful mission