Psyche spacecraft
Psyche is a solar-electric interplanetary spacecraft built around a Maxar chassis and integrated and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Two cross-shaped five-panel solar arrays cover about 75 m² and were designed to provide 21 kW near Earth, falling to about 2.3 kW at the asteroid’s greatest solar distance. Four xenon Hall thrusters provide primary propulsion, with one operating at a time. After its Mars gravity assist, Psyche began nearly continuous thrusting on 28 September 2026; JPL plans approximately 90% thrust duty through its expected summer 2029 arrival. Thruster power will decrease as available sunlight falls. Twelve nitrogen cold-gas thrusters provide additional momentum management and support deployment, safe-mode and other operations when the main electric propulsion is unavailable.
Future launches and major activity directly linked to this vehicle family.
Identity
- Aliases
- PsychePsyche spacecraftNASA Psyche spacecraft
- Family Name
- Psyche
- Full Name
- Psyche spacecraft
- Roles
- interplanetary_probeflybyorbiterresearchtechnology_demonstrator
- Status
- active
- Type
- spacecraft
Details
- Description
- Psyche is a solar-electric interplanetary spacecraft built around a Maxar chassis and integrated and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Two cross-shaped five-panel solar arrays cover about 75 m² and were designed to provide 21 kW near Earth, falling to about 2.3 kW at the asteroid’s greatest solar distance. Four xenon Hall thrusters provide primary propulsion, with one operating at a time. After its Mars gravity assist, Psyche began nearly continuous thrusting on 28 September 2026; JPL plans approximately 90% thrust duty through its expected summer 2029 arrival. Thruster power will decrease as available sunlight falls. Twelve nitrogen cold-gas thrusters provide additional momentum management and support deployment, safe-mode and other operations when the main electric propulsion is unavailable.
- First Flight Year
- 2,023
- Manufacturer
- Operator
- Propulsion Configurations
- Entries
- Count
- 4
- Placement
- spacecraft
- Propulsion System
- Role
- main
- Variant Notes
- Four SPT-140 Hall thrusters; one active at a time, up to 240 mN per NASA Psyche documentation.
- Name
- Psyche main solar-electric propulsion
- Notes
- NASA documents four SPT-140 Hall-effect thrusters using xenon; only one thruster operates at a time. The separately described nitrogen cold-gas system remains outside this packet because its exact canonical identity is unresolved.
- Spacecraft Specs
- Launch Mass
- …
- Reusability
- expendable
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 29, 2026 at 10:14:49 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:50:02 UTC