Solar System Simulator · Spacecraft · live
Where is Psyche right now?
Bound for the metal asteroid Psyche, arriving August 2029. Launched 13 October 2023 by NASA.
Worked out for Fri, Oct 23, 2026 (UTC) from JPL Horizons.
What Psyche is doing
Psyche is heading for the asteroid of the same name, a 220 km body in the main belt thought to be mostly metal, perhaps the exposed core of a planet that never finished forming. It flies on solar electric propulsion, a gentle, continuous push from its Hall thrusters.
What happens next
A Mars flyby in May 2026 bent its path outward; it arrives at the asteroid in August 2029 and spends about two years in ever-lower orbits around it.
Timeline
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 13 Oct 2023 | Launch |
| 14 Nov 2023 | First deep-space laser link |
| May 2026 | Mars flyby |
| Aug 2029 | Arrives at Psyche |
What the simulator does
- Open the Now tab: the clock jumps to this minute and pauses, and every probe is drawn where JPL Horizons puts it, among the planets where they really are.
- Pick Psyche and the view centres on it; the compressed distance scale keeps even the Voyagers in the frame.
- The positions come from JPL's tables, refreshed every day; the planets come from the simulator's own physics on today's date.
Questions people ask
Where is Psyche right now?
Psyche is 1.77 AU from the Sun, 264.1 million km (164.1 million mi), and 1.78 AU from Earth. Light from it takes 15 minutes to reach us.
How far is Psyche from Earth?
1.78 AU, 265.9 million km (165.2 million mi) from Earth today, so a radio signal takes 15 minutes each way.
When does Psyche arrive at the asteroid?
August 2029.
How is its position worked out?
From JPL Horizons, NASA's ephemeris service, which tracks every spacecraft from its radio signals. This site keeps a table of positions a few days apart and reads today's from it; the page is rendered for the day it is served.
Keep going
The distances come from JPL Horizons, refreshed daily; the map and the simulator place the planets with the site's own physics.