It is worth mentioning that the launch was originally scheduled to take place on October 5 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but has now been postponed to October 12.

Public information shows that the Psyche Orbiter (Psyche) is a detector used by the United States to detect the metal-rich Psyche (16 Phyche). It was approved on January 4, 2017, and is expected to finally arrive in 2029. Psyche, begins a 26-month scientific mission.

▲ Picture source; NASA

The Psyche probe’s journey through space will last nearly six years and about 3.6 billion kilometers before reaching Psyche, a planet orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe that Psyche may be part of the core of a planetesimal and may be made of iron-nickel metal.

The ores are not intended to be mined but will be studied in space to allow researchers to better understand the components of the Earth’s core.

Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit around the sun, and its closest approach to Earth is about three times the distance between Earth and Mars. “This asteroid is for scientific exploration only, not for profit,” the lead researcher said.

It is learned that he Lingshen Planet Orbiter is designed to answer the following questions:

 1. Is Psyche a metallic core left behind after a differentiated celestial body was stripped away, or is it an iron-rich celestial body formed directly?

 2. If Psyche is a metallic core with its outer shell stripped away, how and when does this phenomenon occur?

 3. If Psyche ever melted, did it solidify from the inside out or from the outside in?

 4. Does Spirit Star generate magnetoelectricity when it cools down?

 5. What are the main alloys contained in the metal core?

 6. What are the main characteristics of the geology and global topography of Psyche? Does Psyche look completely different from icy and stony stars?

 7. What is the difference between impact craters on the surface of metallic celestial bodies and those on the surfaces of icy and stony stars?

The post SpaceX will launch the Psyche probe for NASA on October 12 using a Falcon Heavy rocket appeared first on TechGoing.

Musk said on the X platform that “the pace of Falcon launches will only accelerate in the coming months, with a goal of 10 Falcon flights per month by the end of this year, and then 12 per month next year. 10 Falcon launches have already been completed by SpaceX in 30 days. If SpaceX achieves its goal, this will soon become the norm.”

▲ Source Musk’s post on the X platform

Musk also claimed that based on the company’s 2024 launch manifest, SpaceX will send about 90 percent of its total global payloads into orbit next year.

SpaceX’s launch team is also speeding up the reconfiguration of its launch pads. This year, SpaceX reduced its turnaround time between missions to less than four days at its most-used launch site in Florida, which has supported 46 orbital launch attempts this year.

SpaceX will continue to be busy with a number of launches in the coming months, they are currently in the midst of a major official announcement for the second test flight of the Starship rocket in South Texas, which could take place as soon as this month.

▲Space’s post on the X platform shows the Starship’s shape.

The post SpaceX sets new record with 64 launches this year appeared first on TechGoing.

The NASA events calendar shows that SpaceX will launch this satellite via a Heavy Falcon rocket at 07:29 am BST on the 28th, along with two smaller satellites, Arcturus and G-Space 1, which will be carpooled together. Of course, the launch will be postponed again if weather or technical reasons do not allow it (it was originally scheduled for 18 April), and the weather forecast for Space Launch Delta 45th shows a 40% chance of not meeting the launch criteria.

The satellite is a super high-throughput communications satellite developed by Boeing for ViaSat, the highest-throughput Ka-band communications satellite ever built by mankind, and the first launch of Boeing’s 702MP+ platform, as well as the first all-electric propulsion system for the 702MP series platform, which can transmit data at 1Tbps (China’s Zhongxing 26, launched earlier this year, just (China’s Zhongxing 26 launched earlier in the year just exceeded 100Gbps).

▲ Photo credit: Boeing

The satellite is expected to be launched on the SpaceX Heavy Falcon launch vehicle from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (the only launch pad currently capable of handling Heavy Falcons), the rocket’s second mission this year and the sixth flight of the Heavy Falcon rocket. The launch was an expendable launch (core B1068, boosters B1052 and B1053 all-throw), using maximum thrust to send the satellite straight into GEO geostationary orbit, where it will provide communications services to North and South America in the Western Hemisphere.

The ViaSat 3 constellation system, consisting of three satellites, is intended to be one of the most powerful constellations in human history, with two follow-on satellites covering the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and the Asia-Pacific region, respectively, and is scheduled to be launched on Cosmopolis 5 and Ariane 6 rockets, with launches expected in September 2023 and March 2024.

Viasat-3 has a mass of around 6 tons, a pair of huge light wings (16 solar panels in total) and a giant umbrella antenna that allows it to communicate at rates of up to 100+Mpbs and a capacity of up to 1Tbps.

ViaSat claims that this satellite is the largest capacity telecommunications satellite ever built. Boeing has previously described ViaSat 3 as the most powerful satellite it has ever built, with solar panels alone capable of generating an extraordinary 30 kilowatts of power (about a quarter of the power capacity of the International Space Station).

ViaSat-3 Americas is planned to use a geostationary orbit at 88.9 degrees West and is designed to have an in-orbit lifetime of at least 15 years. The satellite is based on the Boeing 702MP bus, manufactured at Boeing’s El Segundo, California facility and transported to Florida on a Ukrainian Antonov AN-124 cargo plane.

In addition to ViaSat-3 Americas, two small satellites will also be placed in geostationary orbit on this flight. the Arcturus satellite, a communications satellite dedicated to the state of Alaska, also known as Aurora 4A, has a mass of 400 kg and is planned to use an orbit of 163 degrees West, making it the first Astranis commercial satellite to be launched. The satellite is designed for a 10-year life and uses the 7.5 Gbps Ku-band and has two solar panels.

G-Space 1 is a 16U CubeSat, built in Denmark for Gravity Space of Ukraine, weighing 22 kg and designed to support IoT communication services. The satellite contains several payloads, such as the Nusantara H-1A for PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara in Indonesia.

Following this mission, SpaceX’s Heavy Falcon rocket is scheduled to fly three more missions this year: the USSF-52 mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than 23 June; Echostar 24 (Jupiter 3) will launch no earlier than August this year; and the NASA Psyche asteroid probe is confirmed for launch on 5 October.

The post SpaceX’s heavy-duty Falcon rocket will launch tomorrow appeared first on TechGoing.

This is also the fifth flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The primary payload of the USSF-67 mission, a communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmented Satellite Communications 2 (CBAS 2), was sent to a geostationary orbit approximately 35,700 kilometers above Earth.

CBAS-2 will “provide communications relay capabilities in support of senior leaders and combatant commanders,” tasked with augmenting existing military satellite communications capabilities, U.S. Space Force officials said in an emailed statement Jan. 13. And continuously broadcast military data through space-based satellite relay links.

The payload of this mission also includes the LDPE-3A ESPAStar platform. According to EverydayAstronaut.com, LDPE-3A will carry five payloads for the U.S. Space Force, including the Catcher and WASSAT for the Space Systems Command (SSC), and the Rapid Capabilities Office for the U.S. Space Force. 3 payloads.

U.S. Space Force officials have previously stated that the three payloads include “two prototypes for enhanced situational awareness and a prototype encrypted/interface encrypted payload that provides secure air-to-ground communications capabilities.”

The post SpaceX launches Heavy Falcon rocket on classified USSF-67 mission appeared first on TechGoing.