NASA is preparing to launch Psyche. The ship will fly on a large SpaceX rocket

NASA currently has several space missions planned. As we know, the agency is preparing to return humans to the Moon, but in the meantime it is working on other projects of great interest to science. One of them is Psyche, which targets a metallic object in the asteroid belt of the same name.

In the beginning, the soul remained Scheduled for October 5. On that day, NASA’s probe will be launched on a rocket provided by SpaceX. this will be Falcon HeavyWhich will be launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission launch window will last until October 25.

The Falcon Heavy is a large SpaceX rocket with three first stages. So far, it has only been used on missions a few times. Psyche will be the next event and there will definitely be something worth watching, because the launches of this rocket are absolutely stunning.

After launch, the probe will travel for several years to its destination, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is a mineral rock. The ship hasn’t gotten there yet Summer 2029 Three years ago, in 2026, it will fly over the Red Planet and, thanks to the help of gravity, will gain speed for its further flight.

“I can’t wait to see the first images. It will be amazing when we finally see what this metallic asteroid looks like up close.” Laurie Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said during a news conference Wednesday

The target of the NASA mission is an asteroid called 16 Psyche, which is metallic. The object is about 280 kilometers long and may provide a lot of new information about the origins of the solar system. The probe is scheduled to study this object for at least 26 months and will eventually approach it to a distance of only 64 kilometers above the surface.

16 Psyche is a mysterious object that has never been explored. Scientists expect the surface to be largely metallic, but there must be something else there. Rocks and sulfur? This is unknown and NASA’s mission is to discover the details. The project cost the agency as much as $1.2 billion. The ship will use three instruments during the search: a gamma and neutron spectrometer, a multispectral camera, and a magnetometer.