Power On: Psyche Spacecraft

In this photo, taken in November 2020, technicians power on the main body of NASA's Psyche spacecraft — called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis — for the first time, in a clean room at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California. Maxar will deliver the SEP Chassis to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in spring of 2021. Set to launch in August 2022, Psyche will investigate the composition of a metal-rich asteroid of the same name that lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will arrive in early 2026 and orbit the asteroid for nearly two years. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24326