NASA begins independent review to examine issues that delayed Psyche asteroid mission

U.S. space agency NASA will soon start an independent review of the Psyche mission, the agency’s first mission designed to study a metal-rich asteroid, to examine why it missed the 2022 launch window.

Results of this review will help inform a continuation/ termination review for the mission, as well as provide NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with actionable information to reduce the risk for other missions, the agency said.

In a blog post on Thursday, NASA said, “NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have commissioned an independent review to examine project and institutional issues that led to the Psyche mission missing its planned 2022 launch opportunity and to review the mission’s path forward. The 15-member review board will be chaired by retired NASA official Tom Young and is slated to begin work on July 19. The review will study factors of workforce environment, culture, communication, schedule, and both technical and programmatic risks.”

Led by the Arizona State University, Psyche is a first-of-its-kind mission to a mysterious, metal-rich asteroid of the same name, which lies in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and orbits the Sun. The mission’s 2022 launch period, which ran from August 1 through October 11, would have allowed the spacecraft to arrive at the asteroid Psyche in 2026. There are possible launch periods in 2023 and 2024, but the exact dates of these potential launch periods are yet to be determined by NASA.

The asteroid Psyche is of particular interest to scientists because of how unusual it is, with its metal content, high density, and low concentration of iron oxides.

Scientists believe that the 226-kilometre-wide asteroid may consist largely of metal from the core of a planetesimal, a building block of the rocky planets in our solar system.