Less than two years after launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft experienced a glitch in its propulsion system that’s now jeopardizing its mission to explore a unique metallic asteroid in the main belt. NASA engineers, ever resourceful, implemented a fix for the spacecraft’s unexpected drop in pressure by switching to a backup line—one they hope will help Psyche reach its namesake asteroid.
Earlier in April, the team of engineers with the Psyche mission
detected an unexpected decrease in fuel pressure in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. The issue needed to be resolved before mid-June, otherwise it would have affected the spacecraft’s trajectory towards the Psyche asteroid. After investigating, the team recently switched from the primary propellant line to a backup that NASA says is identical. The Psyche spacecraft remains on course to rendezvous with the asteroid in August 2029.
Psyche’s thrusters, powered by two large solar arrays, ionize and expel xenon gas to gently propel the spacecraft, according to
NASA. The spacecraft began firing its thrusters in May 2024, but just over a year later, engineers detected a pressure drop in the line that delivers xenon gas to the thrusters—from 36 pounds per square inch (psi) to about 26 psi, according to NASA.
