SpaceX to launch NASA spacecraft to mysterious metal-rich asteroid

NASA and SpaceX are expected to send a small spacecraft on its long journey to inspect a metal-rich, yet mysterious asteroid located in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.

Researchers believe that the Psyche asteroid could be an ancient core of a planet, or planet-like object, and that visiting it with a spacecraft, collecting data through observations while it orbits the body, will enable researchers to learn more about the evolution of the solar system, and by extension, Earth. The spacecraft is appropriately named after the asteroid itself, Psyche, and has already been placed a top of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which is expected to launch sometime on 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13 (depending on weather conditions).

It was only on October 12 when NASA and SpaceX both took to their official X accounts to announce the launch was called off due to unfavorable weather conditions. If you are worried that the launch will have be scrubbed until a much later date, don't be. NASA replied to one user that asking what the last possible day before a scrub has to occur, "There are additional opportunities identified each day through Oct. 25," wrote the space agency.