NASA, the U.S. agency, also plans to build houses on the Moon by 2040. NASA handles science and technology related to air and space.
They posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that because of unfavorable weather conditions, both NASA and SpaceX are calling off the launch of Psyche until Friday, October 13.
Pushes Back Psyche Launch Due to Weather
A SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket was scheduled to launch NASA’s Psyche spacecraft on Thursday morning (Oct. 12) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre’s Pad 39A. In a relaunch, press conference On Wednesday (Oct. 11), break predictions for the next morning’s forecast left only a 20% chance of favorable weather.
Due to Wednesday night’s storms, the decision was made to cancel Thursday’s launch attempt to take advantage of better weather predicted for Friday and Saturday (Oct. 14). The mission team has further launch opportunities through October 25, if Friday doesn’t work out.
NASA’s First Mission Psyche
Psyche is NASA’s first mission to explore an asteroid whose surface scientists believe may contain metal rather than rock and ice. In about six years, the spacecraft will travel around 2.2 billion miles to a point between Mars and Jupiter.
To get insight into the early stages of the solar system, the spacecraft will deploy several science instruments once it reaches the 170-mile-wide asteroid. The analysis could reveal how rocky planets like Earth and Mars formed billions of years ago.
It will take six years for the spacecraft to reach the asteroid, which is far different from what most people think.
Wiess said to Spectrum News, “We want to go to Psyche because it’s an addition to a metal world as well as an iron-rich asteroid, which makes it unique. In fact, asteroids are remnants of much more numerous and widespread groups of bodies in the early solar system known as planetesimals, or little planetesimals. And they are the building blocks of the planets.”
