NASA Successfully Launches Spacecraft on Six-Year Voyage to Rare Metal Asteroid

• NASA has launched its Psyche spacecraft on a Falcon Heavy rocket to explore a rare, metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter.
• The asteroid Psyche may be the exposed core of an early planet and could offer insights into how Earth's core formed.
• After a six-year journey, the spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid in 2029 and spend nearly two years mapping and studying its surface.
• The mission aims to understand the building blocks of planet formation and origins of life by analyzing Psyche's composition.
• The launch comes after multiple delays but now begins the spacecraft's 2.2 billion mile trek carrying NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications experiment.

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