NASA and SpaceX teams are set to launch the agency’s Psyche mission to metallic asteroid 16 Psyche from Florida on Friday, Oct. 13. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch is currently scheduled for 10:19 AM EDT (14:19 UTC). Current weather forecasts from the 45th Weather Squadron predict a 40% chance for favorable weather at liftoff. Should the launch be scrubbed due to weather, backup launch opportunities are available throughout the following days. Psyche’s launch window lasts from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25.
Psyche will be the first mission to ever visit and extensively study a metallic asteroid. 16 Psyche is thought to have once been the core of forming planetesimal back when the solar system was first forming. If this prediction is true, 16 Psyche could provide planetary scientists with incredible amounts of information and insight into how planets form and what the cores of planets like Earth, Mars, and Mercury look like.
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