NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission will relaunch this October, according to an independent review, after software issues combined with corporate issues at JPL delayed its launch last year. NASA released a report on June 5 by an independent review board (IRB) commissioned by the agency last year after Psyche missed two launch windows in 2022 due to delays in flight software development and testing.

Last fall, the board concluded that Psyche was suffering from broader issues with its software development programs, including a strained workforce and poor internal communications at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The new report evaluated how both the mission and JPL implemented the recommendations made in the previous report and concluded that both sides had made significant progress.

“The IRB believes the response to our Psyche project and to the JPL findings and recommendations has been excellent,” IRB president Tom Young told reporters. “We believe Psyche is on a positive track for the October 2023 launch.”

JPL director Laurie Leshin said the job for Psyche includes reorganizing the project around the remaining pre-launch work and bringing in experienced management. The project has now “nearly completed” all remaining software testing. With 18 weeks to launch, preparations are going well and there are seven weeks left on the schedule. “I am pleased to report that the project has been greenlit in all respects and is ready for launch in October,” he said.

The delay resulted in some additional costs for NASA, and officials said in the call these are still being evaluated. A May 31 Government Accountability Office report evaluating NASA’s major projects said the cost of Psyche, which was projected to be just under $1 billion at the time of 2019 approval, had risen to approximately $1.13 billion by January 2023. The report added that the new estimate was taken into account due to the potentially higher operating costs associated with longer travel times due to the delay.

Meanwhile, JPL has been working on other manpower and communications-related proposals that have been under development for several months. This includes the new hybrid working policy, which requires most people to work in the field three days a week. By improving recruitment and retention, the lab has recruited “hundreds” of Leshyn’s experienced employees, more than 50 of whom had previously worked at JPL and decided to return.

“We’ve overcome our manpower challenges, our missions are staffed, and we’re much stronger today,” he said.

Lessons from Psyche apply to other JPL tasks. Leshin said the Europa Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October 2024 to study Jupiter’s icy moon, has been reworked so Psyche can focus on the remaining work.

One of the recommendations that the independent review board found insufficient was the improvement of the process of the Permanent Review Board (SRB), an external board designed to identify issues similar to those faced by Psyche for missions like Psyche and bring them to the management project. NASA. The independent commission concluded that the timing of the SRB’s review did not allow them to effectively identify issues that were delaying the mission.

Young said the SRB can be an “extremely robust project management tool” if it has the right people and meets often enough to spot problems early. “Something that requires a lot of attention,” he concluded, not just for Psyche but for the task in general.

He said NASA agreed that the SRB process should be strengthened and that this work is still ongoing. “I am very hopeful that we will get this SRB process under control so we can really trust that there will be a check and balance in the flight projects.”

Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, agreed that the SRB process can be improved. “The goal is to take the findings and actually review or revise the SRB processes at NASA.”

Nicola Fox, deputy director for science, said that given the time and effort involved, NASA has no plans to conduct “extensive” reviews of other centers working on science missions. “We are making a very concerted effort to ensure that all lessons learned and best practices are openly shared with all other centres,” he said.

Fox, who took office in February, said he was pleased with the progress in restoring Psyche and improving JPL. “We certainly don’t think we can rest, we don’t even believe that the problems have gone away or will go away,” he said. “We really feel like we’re starting to make a difference and these changes should continue.”