NASA's Psyche DAPM Deployment and Stow for Launch

A team of engineers and technicians worked on deploying and stowing stationary plasma thrusters (SPT) on NASA's Psyche spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 4, 2023. This is part of the assembly, test, and launch operations preparations. The SPT are on a dual axis positioning mechanism, the DAPM, and together they make a DSM, or DAPM-Actuated SPT Module. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. Launch is targeted for Oct. 5, 2023. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.
Date Created:2023-08-04
Center:KSC
Keywords: NASA , National Aeronautical and Space Administration , KSC , Kennedy Space Center , Jet Propulsion Lab , JPL , Psyche , asteroid , metal-rich , LSP , Launch Services Program , Deep Space Optical Communication , DSOC , Astrotech , spacecraft , Astrotech , ATLO , Assembly , Test , and Launch Operations , Maxar , Dual Axis Positioning Mechanism , DAPM , clean room , Stationary Plasma Thruster , SPT , DAPM-Actuated SPT Module , DSM , launch processing , spacecraft processing , SpaceX , Falcon Heavy , rocket , Arizona State University , ASU
Albums: SpaceX_Psyche
Location:Kennedy Space Center Property
Photographer:NASA Glenn Benson