Preparation for Launch of the Psyche Spacecraft for NASA's Discovery Program

Psyche: Journey to a Metal World, a flight project led by principal investigator Dr. Linda Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University, was authorized by NASA in February 2021 to enter its system assembly, integration and test phase in preparation for launch in 2022. The Psyche mission is the 14th mission in NASA’s Discovery program. It is enabled by solar electric propulsion and will use SPT-140 Hall thrusters to rendezvous and orbit the largest metal-rich asteroid in the solar system. The spacecraft requires no chemical propulsion and will be the first mission to use Hall thrusters beyond the Earth-Moon system. This paper provides an overview of the project’s progress through its critical design review and system integration and test into preparations for launch operations. It provides overviews of the science objectives, mission concept, and spacecraft design, including design progress made since its preliminary design review, and describes progress made in the environmental test campaign which was conducted on the spacecraft in preparation for shipment to Kennedy Space Center (KSC).