NASA launches mission to metal-rich asteroid Psyche

#MissionToPsycheNASA on Friday launched a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, the largest of the several metal-rich asteroids known in our solar system and a body thought to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet.

The Psyche probe, folded inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on a planned journey 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) through space. The spacecraft, roughly the size of a small van, is due to reach the asteroid in August 2029.