Psyche Solar Array Arrival and Offload

The transport carrier containing the twin solar arrays for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is transferred into the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 15, 2023. The solar arrays were shipped from Maxar Technologies, in San Jose, California. They are part of the solar electric propulsion system, provided by Maxar, that will power the spacecraft on its journey to explore a metal-rich asteroid. 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.

The transport carrier containing the twin solar arrays for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is transferred into the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 15, 2023. The solar arrays were shipped from Maxar Technologies, in San Jose, California. They are part of the solar electric propulsion system, provided by Maxar, that will power the spacecraft on its journey to explore a metal-rich asteroid. 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.

Photographer NASA/Dan Casper
Album SpaceX_Psyche
Location Astrotech