The mission, named for the 16 Psyche asteroid it will observe, will travel about 2.2 billion miles over the next six years.
NASA has launched its first mission to a mysterious world made largely of metal, on a journey to find out whether the asteroid is the exposed core of an early planetary building block from the beginning of the solar system.The Psyche mission lifted off at 10:19 a.m. ET Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche will be the first of many upcoming NASA science missions slated to launch aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket.
Video above: NASA mission to Psyche asteroid worth $10 quintillionOnce in space, the team will spend three to four months going through initial checks of the spacecraft and its instruments.To accomplish the rest of the mission, the van-size spacecraft will rely on its new solar electric propulsion system, powered by Hall-effect thrusters, Oh said.
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