One Month From Launch: Psyche Mission to a Metal Asteroid (Live Briefing)

Scheduled to launch on Oct. 5, 2023, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Psyche mission is a journey to a metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it may be the partial core of a planetesimal (one of the building blocks of a rocky planet) or could be primordial material that never melted. The mission aims to help answer fundamental questions about Earth’s own metal core and the formation of our solar system.

The spacecraft also will carry NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), a technology demonstration that aims to show how lasers could increase data transmission rates far beyond the capacity of current radio frequency systems used on spacecraft today.

Tune in as we hear from experts behind the mission. JPL Director Laurie Leshin will provide opening remarks, and briefing participants are expected to include:
Lori Glaze, director, Planetary Sciences Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of Psyche, Arizona State University
Henry Stone, project manager, Psyche, JPL
Abi Biswas, project technologist for DSOC, JPL
Serkan Bastug, mission manager, Launch Services Program, NASA Kennedy