Maxar delivers satellite chassis for NASA mission to asteroid near Mars

WESTMINSTER — Maxar Technologies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: MAXR) delivered the chassis for a NASA mission that will launch a satellite next year to study an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

In a statement, the Westminster company said the chassis is about the size of a small car and combined with a solar array, antenna and electric propulsion system. The satellite is scheduled to launch in August 2022 and arrive at its destination in 2026 before spending 21 months studying the asteroid.

The company was selected to build the chassis in 2017.

Psyche is a 140-mile-wide asteroid floating in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA is interested in finding out the composition of the asteroid between rock and metal, which may provide insight into how other asteroids, planets and potentially Earth was formed.

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