The screenshot taken from the streaming of NASA shows the Psyche spacecraft on its way to a metal-rich asteroid on Oct. 13, 2023. (Xinhua)
The spacecraft will spend about two years orbiting the asteroid to take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine asteroid Psyche's composition.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched its Psyche mission on Friday, the first-ever U.S. mission to study a metal-rich asteroid.
The Psyche spacecraft lifted off at 10:19 a.m. Eastern Time Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida.
Soon after the launch, the first and second stages of the Falcon Heavy center core separated. The side boosters from the Falcon Heavy landed successfully at SpaceX's landing zones at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, nearby Kennedy Space Center.
The spacecraft is on its roughly six-year journey to the asteroid Psyche. The spacecraft will travel 3.5 billion kilometers to the metal-rich asteroid in the far reaches of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, on Oct. 11, 2023, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Credit: NASA)
If all goes as planned, asteroid Psyche's gravity will capture the spacecraft in late July 2029, and the spacecraft will begin its prime mission in August.
The spacecraft will spend about two years orbiting the asteroid to take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine asteroid Psyche's composition, according to NASA.
A technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications flies on the Psyche spacecraft in order to test high-data-rate laser communications that could be used by future NASA missions.
Psyche is also NASA's first scientific mission that was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The mission aims to help scientists learn more about the formation of rocky bodies in our solar system, according to NASA. ■
