back to article NASA's Psyche mission: 2022 launch is off after software arrives late

Sadly for NASA's mission to take samples from the asteroid Psyche, software problems mean the spacecraft is going to miss its 2022 launch window. The US space agency made the announcement on Friday: "Due to the late delivery of the spacecraft's flight software and testing equipment, NASA does not have sufficient time to …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    A question of logistics, I think

    I would think that, at this point in time, there's a bunch of meetings on the theme "How can we save the Pysche mission ?" and a few others on the theme "What can do with this stuff is Psyche goes south ?".

    NASA is generally pretty good at planning, but I'd hate to be one of their planners right now.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: A question of logistics, I think

      Well, they did say "NASA takes the cost and schedule commitments of its projects and programs very seriously." but that has echos of "We take the security of a customer data very seriously" :-)

  2. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward
    Trollface

    Beta Launch

    Can they not launch with a Beta version, and just do a few updates and patches en-route to fix the bugs that become apparent?

    Seems to be the norm for almost all software projects these days.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Beta Launch

      Sounds reasonable ... BUT can the hardware be fully tested/certified without fully working s/w.

      If it can then NASA may have a new way to launch hardware:

      1) Build and test H/w with minimal 'Bootstrap' s/w.

      2) Launch and set on way to eventual destination.

      3) Develop and test s/w during the 'Transit' period.

      4) 'Bootstrap' final s/w remotely.

      5) Start Real mission !!!

      If the launch should fail for any reason .... NASA would save on the Development costs :)

      < Joke ..... I think !!! >

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