NASA was due on Friday to launch a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, a distant, metal-rich asteroid that is the solar system's largest-known metallic object and is thought to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet. The Psyche probe, folded inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, was slated for blastoff at 10:19 a.m. EDT (1419 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on a planned journey 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) through space. Propelled by a system of solar-electric ion thrusters being used for the first time on an interplanetary mission, the spacecraft - about the size of a small van - is expected to reach its target on the outer fringes of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter nearly six years from now.
SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket is standing tall on the launch pad ahead of the planned Friday (Oct. 13) liftoff of NASA's Psyche metal asteroid mission.
NASA’s six-year trip to the asteroid belt will have to wait at least one more day as mission managers called off the planned Thursday launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy carrying the Psyche probe. Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron only gave Thursday a 20% chance for good launch conditions, which will improve to 50% if delayed until Friday. Now NASA and SpaceX will aim for a 10:19 a.m. .
For the first time ever, a NASA probe is set to journey to an object composed not of rock, ice, or gas, but metal: the asteroid Psyche.- Less metal, more rock?