CORRECTING and REPLACING NASA’s Psyche—Maxar Space Systems' First Deep Space Spacecraft— Performing Well After Launch
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~ NASA's Psyche mission, the first deep space spacecraft to use commercial solar electric propulsion (SEP), is performing well after its launch earlier today. Maxar Space Systems, provider of comprehensive space technologies, built the unique spacecraft chassis based on the Maxar 1300™ series bus.

The Maxar 1300 spacecraft is one of the lightest and smallest ever, showing the versatility of the platform. Despite its small size, Psyche packs a powerful propulsion system for a one-way journey that will travel 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) throughout the mission. It carries the largest load of Xenon ever aboard a spacecraft to help power its thrusters. The thrusters will use electromagnetic fields to accelerate and expel charged atoms, or ions, of that xenon in order to create thrust and move Psyche through space.

Chris Johnson, CEO for Maxar Space Systems commented on this mission saying "Psyche will break records for deep space travel using SEP. Maxar leads the industry in propulsion systems that use the Sun's energy to keep a mission moving. Psyche's propulsion system is three times as powerful as SEP systems on more than 40 spacecraft we've built, and we're producing a more powerful version for the Power and Propulsion Element of NASA's Gateway space station."

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Maxar was selected to provide the spacecraft platform for the Psyche mission under a firm-fixed-price contract. The Psyche spacecraft will travel beyond Mars to study a metal-rich asteroid in 2029, where it will spend 26 months orbiting and collecting data from its 140-mile-wide target. The mission is led by Arizona State University with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory responsible for overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations.

In addition to Psyche, NASA will use the Maxar 1300 platform and SEP technology for their Artemis Program's Power and Propulsion Element as well as other missions such as OSAM-1 mission and Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO).

Maxar Space Systems' first deep space spacecraft—Psyche—is performing well after launch earlier today according to NASA's longest mission using commercial solar electric propulsion (SEP). The unique chassis was built based on Maxar's 1300™ series bus which has proven itself as one of the lightest and smallest ever while still packing enough power for its 2.2 billion mile journey throughout its life cycle. This record breaking craft carries an unprecedented load of Xenon which powers its thrusters using electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged atoms or ions in order to create thrust necessary for movement through space.

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Maxar was chosen under a firm-fixed-price contract to provide this platform which will be used by NASA not only for their Artemis Program's Power and Propulsion Element but also other missions such as OSAM-1 mission and Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO). The Psyche spacecraft is set to travel beyond Mars in 2029 where it will spend 26 months orbiting around a metal rich asteroid collecting data from its 140 mile wide target before returning home with valuable information about our universe's history that could not be obtained any other way.
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