SpaceX, the aerospace company helmed by Tesla (TSLA) -) CEO Elon Musk, successfully launched NASA spacecraft Psyche Friday morning. The company now has a total of more than 270 rocket launches under its belt, a combination of crewed missions, test launches and, mainly, Starlink satellite deployments.
The launch represents NASA's first scientific mission to be flown into space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, NASA said in a statement Oct. 12.
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Around 10 minutes after liftoff, both SpaceX boosters safely returned to Earth.
Falcon Heavy’s side boosters have landed pic.twitter.com/2yn0lpEkHt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2023
The mission, spearheaded by NASA's Psyche spacecraft, is meant to explore a metal-rich asteroid currently orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Mars. The journey to the asteroid, covering a distance of about 2.2 billion miles, is expected to take roughly six years. Once there, the Psyche spacecraft will spend a further 26 months in orbit, gathering data.
NOW: Watch the #MissionToPsyche spacecraft launch on a @SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from @NASAKennedy to a metal-rich asteroid.🚀 https://t.co/iNkvovsYpH
— NASA (@NASA) October 13, 2023
The mission will additionally serve as NASA's first deep space test of its Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) system, NASA said.
Scientists, according to NASA, believe that the asteroid in question — also named Psyche — might represent a piece of the core of a "planetary building block." Studying the metals that make it up will allow scientists to better understand the formation of planets in the solar system, as well as the composition of Earth's own core.
"Humans can’t bore a path to our planet’s core – or the cores of the other rocky planets – so visiting Psyche could provide a one-of-a-kind window into the violent history of collisions and accumulation of matter that created planets like our own," NASA said.
The Falcon Heavy rocket that propelled Psyche into the atmosphere and beyond boasts five million pounds of thrust, according to SpaceX. The company's Falcon 9 rockets, in comparison, have around 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
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Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, called the flight a "historic voyage of scientific discovery."
The craft was initially scheduled to launch Oct. 12 but was scrubbed due to poor weather conditions.
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