NASA launches spacecraft to explore rare metal asteroid

HOUSTON, United States

NASA launched a first-of-its-kind mission on Friday sending the Psyche spacecraft on a journey to explore a rare metal-covered asteroid.

The spacecraft blasted off on a SpaceX Falcon rocket from Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida for the six-year mission which is expected to reach asteroid Psyche by 2029.

The goal is to explore the asteroid which scientists believe could shed light on the planetary building blocks of Earth because Pysche is composed of a mixture of rock and iron-nickel metal.

"It's going to be spectacular," said Psyche Imaging Team Lead Jim Bell from Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "We're going to be collecting this data set and studying this planetary core for future generations."

"Data images, chemical data, magnet field data, gravity data, and really, you know, we can't study the Earth's core any other way," Bell continued. "Here's maybe how cores grow and what's happening inside our own planet."

The spacecraft is expected to fly by Mars in May 2026 and use the Red Planet's gravity to slingshot itself toward the asteroid which is 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend about 26 months in orbit gathering images and other data. However, no metal will be mined.

"We look forward...to accomplishing the mission's objectives, marking yet another historic voyage of scientific discovery," said Psyche Project Manager Henry Stone from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"The team has worked tirelessly to prepare the spacecraft for its journey to a one-of-a-kind asteroid."