This Week In Launches: NASA Psyche makes it to the launch pad

SpaceX is leading the show this week with three rocket launches from Florida’s Space Coast. The one on all of our eyes is of course NASA’s Psyche mission flying on SpaceX Falcon Heavy, a show stopping rocket and science mission all in one week!

P.S. I’m on site for this mission, yay!

This week’s launches:

• October 11
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 6-22, 7:20 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• October 12
  • SpaceX Falcon Heavy NASA Psyche, 10:16 A.M. ET
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• October 14
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 6-23, 6:05 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

NASA Psyche eyeing a launch this week

NASA’s Psyche mission, a probe that will study an asteroid of the same name, is set to lift off from NASA’s historic LC-39A on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Not very often do we get the chance to see a show stopping rocket launch a incredibly important science mission from an historic launch pad, so make sure to keep an eye on this one.

Believed to have been a stripped core of an ancient planet, it’s actually easier for NASA to send a probe to Psyche than for us to get to the core of Earth. Psyche’s mission will be to confirm the hypothesis about what it’s made out of, hopefully solid metal, and then find out as much as possible.

Another exciting payload tagging along is DSOC, Deep Space Optical Communications. This tech demonstration will build upon years of testing optical communications in space with tracking a mission out in deep space (hence the name). While optical comms have become the norm for many of us here on Earth, space based communications have historically been radar based.

If weather allows it, SpaceX will liftoff with its most powerful (operational) rocket from LC-39A Thursday morning. If weather does scrub Thursday’s launch attempt, SpaceX has new opportunities to launch every day until they can or they reach the end of the launch window at the end of the month. But likely we’ll see the rocket launch this weekend as weather improves.

We’ve seen SpaceX be pretty bold with what type of weather it will launch through with its Starlink missions, however for NASA it has always been more cautious.

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Speaking of Starlink…

Leading up and following NASA’s Psyche’s planned launch date SpaceX plans to get two Starlink missions from SLC-40, just south of Psyche’s launch site.

We’ve seen these before and for those that live near the launch sites it has really become almost normal. If SpaceX can get these two Starlink missions and Psyche launched this week, that will total four launches for the week after Monday’s Starlink flight from the West Coast.

A great step forward in reaching the company’s 100 rocket launch goal for the year.