NASA's heavy metal Psyche asteroid trip is a go for October

NASA is on track to launching its Psyche asteroid mission later this year in October after correcting numerous project management issues that led to its initial delay. Psyche was originally scheduled to launch in August 2022 and has cost roughly $1 billion, but was pushed back when engineers delivered the guidance, navigation …

[ThatOne]

> is described as the largest metal planetismal body in the solar system

It's "planetesimal" BTW, and please don't imagine some huge cannon ball hanging out there in the void, Psyche is just so dense it's assumed to have a huge proportion of metal (iron-nickel), way more than the standard, garden variety asteroid belt denizens. There is a whole class of those metal-rich asteroids out there, the M-types, and they're what people dream of eventually mining.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any private equity or Washington lobbyists want NASA to redirect it to back to earth as a commodity.

As per Don’t Look Up ??

[NeilPost]

.. or any Belter Extremists or Free Navy going to use it against the Earth and the UN - LOL.

Beltalowda !!

[Little Mouse]

"...it could reveal secrets to how planets like Earth formed."

Or, it might reveal secrets to how planets like Earth ended up getting smashed into a gazillion pieces.