The launch of a NASA mission from Kennedy Space Center to a peculiar metallic asteroid has been delayed a week, cutting into a shrinking launch window.
NASA has a slim window to launch the to the asteroid belt, where it will study the 170-mile wide asteroid of the same name.
That window closes on October 25. Issues with the spacecraft鈥檚 thrusters have pushed the launch on from this week into next, with daily launch opportunities starting on October 12 after a critical flight readiness review last week cleared the way for final launch preparations.
Unlike many asteroids that are made up of rock or ice, Psyche is made of metal and . Studying it will give insight into .
鈥淭here are a lot of basic questions about Psyche that are unanswered,鈥� said the mission鈥檚 principal investigator, Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University. 鈥淎nd with every detail that gets added from data we can collect from Earth, it just becomes harder to make a sensible story. We really don鈥檛 know what we鈥檙e going to see until we visit, and we鈥檙e going to be surprised.鈥�
Mission managers missed a launch window last year due to software testing issues.
The $1.2 billion mission will spend , taking pictures, maping the surface, and searching for any signs of an ancient magnetic field. It will also examine neutrons and gamma rays coming from the asteroid鈥檚 surface to help uncover its composition.
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