NASA

Teams transport NASA's encapsulated Psyche spacecraft from the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville to Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023.

NASA is set to launch a new mission to an asteroid billions of miles away, which may offer up some clues about how Earth was made.

The launch is scheduled for Friday morning, a day later than expected due to weather conditions, NASA said Wednesday afternoon. The Psyche mission was initially selected for flight in 2017 and was set to launch in August of last year. But, that had to be moved back, with the pandemic part of the reason.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Arizona State University vice president and principal investigator of the NASA Psyche Mission, spoke with The Show about the launch and more. 

Jon Simpson

Lindy Elkins-Tanton

The ASU-led mission will send a spacecraft 2.2 million miles to study a metal-rich asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA has potential launch times listed through Oct. 25 if weather problems persist. 

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