NASA showed off the huge solar array that will help power the Psyche mission to a distant asteroid.
NASA shared a video this week showing the twin solar array opening to their full length during a test exercise.
Brian Bone, who leads assembly, test, and launch operations for the mission at JPL, said that seeing the spacecraft fully assembled for the first time is a huge accomplishment. You feel like it all comes together. You feel the change in energy.
The largest solar array ever installed at JPL is 800 square feet, about the size of a singles tennis court.
The enormous array will deploy about an hour after lift-off, with the procedure taking just eight minutes.
The Psyche asteroid will take about three-and-a-half years to travel 1.5 billion miles to it's widest point and is shaped by NASA.
Scientists hope the two year mission will answer fundamental questions about the formation of our solar system.
NASA is busy this year with a number of notable missions. It recently launched a next-generation satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is also preparing for the Artemis I mission using its new SLS rocket.
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