Psyche Solar Array Arrival and Spacecraft Processing

A NASA team received and unloaded solar arrays for the agency's Psyche spacecraft, 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. As the team brought the solar arrays into the airlock, other members of the team performed processing work on the spacecraft to prepare it for launch.