Psyche Launch Ascent Timeline

This graphic shows the expected timeline of milestones immediately following liftoff for NASA's Psyche spacecraft if Psyche launches at the beginning of its launch period on Oct. 5, 2023. On that day, the elapsed time from liftoff through the milestones shown here will be about 1 hour, 3 minutes.

The actual times of milestones will differ slightly depending on the launch day, but Psyche's separation from its rocket ("deployment") is expected to occur a little over an hour after liftoff.

Psyche is the first in a series of scientific missions from NASA and its partners to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for the mission's overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.

JPL also is providing a technology demonstration instrument called Deep Space Optical Communications that will fly on Psyche in order to test high-data-rate laser communications that could be used by future NASA missions.

Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of a NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center, is managing the launch service.

For more information about NASA's Psyche mission, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/psyche or https://psyche.asu.edu/