CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Psyche spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a six-year journey to a rare metal-covered asteroid.
SpaceX launched the spacecraft into an overcast midmorning sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Scientists envision spiky metal craters, huge metal cliffs and metal-encrusted eroded lava flows greenish-yellow from sulfur — “almost certain to be completely wrong,” according to Elkins-Tanton.
Led by Arizona State University on NASA’s behalf, the $1.2 billion mission will use a roundabout route to get to the asteroid.
So instead of arriving at the asteroid in 2026 as originally planned, the spacecraft won’t get there until 2029.
Persons:
—, NASA’s, “, ”, Laurie Leshin, Jim Bell, Jules Verne, Lindy Elkins, it’s, speck, It's
Organizations:
SpaceX, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Jet Propulsion, NASA, Arizona State University, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP
Locations:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Arizona, Tanton, Elkins, Utah