After Psyche launch delay, NASA assesses options for Janus mission to explore two binary asteroids

NASA is assessing options for the dual-spacecraft Janus mission, which was scheduled for launch as a secondary satellite on the same rocket as the Psyche mission. For the unversed, the agency recently announced the cancellation of the 2022 launch of the Psyche mission to study a metal-rich asteroid that lies in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Janu's launch was originally scheduled for no earlier than September 2022 on SpaceX's Falcon 9 Heavy booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.

"As NASA considers all possible options for the future of the Psyche mission, members of Janus’ science team, led out of the University of Colorado Boulder, are gauging the reachability of their original binary asteroid targets in the event that Psyche launches in 2023 or 2024," NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin Space is currently completing the twin Janus spacecraft, which are on track to complete integration and testing later this year as planned.

Janus, part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, is a mission designed to send two small spacecraft to study two near-Earth binary asteroid systems orbiting between Earth and Mars.

The suitcase-size twin spacecraft will explore two binary asteroid systems - designated 1996 FG3 and 1991 VH - each presenting differing orbital patterns. Using a suite of onboard cameras, the tiny spacecraft will carefully track their dynamics with unmatched detail and build an accurate model of the binary asteroids. The twin crafts will travel about four years to reach their respective destinations.