$1 billion asteroid mission is launched by SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for NASA
NASA‘s mission to a far-off asteroid was successfully launched by SpaceX’s robust Falcon Heavy rocket on Friday morning.
The Psyche asteroid is the target of the namesake NASA mission, which will take a spacecraft approximately the size of a tennis court over six years and 2.2 billion miles to reach in July 2029.
The flight left NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:19 a.m. ET.
The asteroid, which NASA characterizes as «an unusual object likely rich in metal,» will be the subject of an investigation. The Psyche spacecraft is equipped with a wide range of scientific instruments, including ones for analyzing the magnetic field and chemical composition of the asteroid.
The total cost of the Psyche mission, including research and operation expenditures, is estimated by the agency to be over $1.2 billion. NASA gave SpaceX a launch contract for the mission for around $131 million of that total cost.
This flight represents SpaceX’s eighth Falcon Heavy rocket launch, the most potent one currently in use by the corporation. The side boosters of the rocket were landed so they could be recovered and used again.
