NASA’s Psyche Starts Its Long Electric Push Toward a Metal-Rich Asteroid
Tech & Science / Deep-space engineering NASA’s Psyche: the electric push A solar array deployed during testing at JPL in February 2022. Archival photograph; not an in-flight view. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Image source · NASA media guidelines . Sunlight, xenon and time. The long road to a metal-rich world. NEWJIN MEDIA · October 24, 2026 AI-assisted reporting and analysis of official public records. No on-site reporting. Photographs are archival. The October update A new way of cruising, not a new launch Psyche is thrusting toward its asteroid after a Mars flyby. Its small electric push, solar power limits and science instruments explain the journey. The most important change in NASA’s October 22 update is a change in operating rhythm. After years of intermittent electric propulsion and a gravity assist at Mars, the Psyche spacecraft began nearly continuous thrusting on September 28. It is now using the long stretch of interplanetary travel to accumulate a change in velocity that no ...