We’ll have to wait another week to see NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission fly by. Psyche is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on October 5 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. But this is no longer a plan; The task team postponed the start until October 12.

“This change allows the NASA team to complete a review of the parameters used to operate the Psyche spacecraft’s cold gas nitrogen thrusters,” NASA officials wrote in an update Thursday evening, Sept. 28.

“The parameters have recently been adjusted in response to updated forecasts of rising temperatures for these engines,” they added. “Operating engines within temperature limits is important for long-term serviceability of the units.”

The one-week delay significantly shortens Psyche’s launch window, which runs until October 25th.

The error was announced the same day NASA, SpaceX and Psyche mission managers conducted a flight readiness check at KSC. NASA officials said the meeting gave approval for a “static firing” of the Falcon Heavy on Friday, September 29. Static fires are standard pre-launch tests in which a rocket’s first stage engines ignite briefly while the vehicle remains pinned to the ground.

Psyche’s launch will be the eighth launch for Falcon Heavy, the second most powerful rocket currently in operation behind NASA’s Space Launch System. Psyche will be NASA’s first Heavy mission.

The $1.2 billion Psyche mission will explore the strange metallic asteroid of the same name. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will reach the 170-mile-wide (280-kilometer) Psyche space rock, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in 2029.

Scientists believe Psyche may be the exposed core of a protoplanet, the building blocks of worlds like Earth, whose rocky outer layers were laid bare by one or more powerful impacts. Humanity has never seen such an object so close.

“I’m looking forward to seeing these first images,” Laurie Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Sciences Division, said at a press conference on Sept. 6. “They’ll be impressive when we finally see what kind of metal it is.” It closely resembles.” Source