THE NEW SPACE RACE: All you need to know about NASA’s Psyche mission, launching next week.

NASA’s Psyche mission is due to launch at 10:16 a.m. EDT on Thursday 12 October 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center.
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The Psyche mission (named after the asteroid, not the other way around!) will reveal the strange object’s nature, composition and evolution, and shed further light on the origin of the Solar System.

“It is our hope that Psyche teaches us about new and unexpected aspects of planet formation processes that have yet to be explored,” says co-investigator Bill Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

As for the asteroid itself, “we know it’s metal-rich, but beyond that, its origin is an enigma.”

After the Earth, Sun, and Moon, Psyche might prove to be the most valuable object in the solar system. Whoever controls it will have access to a treasure trove of metals that don’t sit at the bottom of a deep gravity well.

Godspeed…

Update: NASA Delays Psyche Launch 1 Week to Fix Engine Glitch.