SpaceX has finally launched NASA's uncrewed Psyche spacecraft aboard its eighth Falcon Heavy flight. According to Interesting Engineering, the liftoff of the asteroid-bound spacecraft occurred at 10:19 a.m. EDT (1419 GMT) Friday from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space.com reported that during the liftoff, the triple-booster rocket ignited all 27 of its first-stage Merlin engines, which produced up to 5 million pounds of thrust as the spacecraft moved skyward to start its 2.2 billion miles journey to investigate the asteroid 16 Psyche.
Under 2.5 minutes into launch, the side boosters of the Falcon Heavy deactivated their engines, separated from the central core stage, and returned to Florida's Space Coast to conduct simultaneous landings.
Falcon Heavy's core booster followed suit approximately four minutes after liftoff, shutting down its first-stage engines and separating from the rocket's second stage, which was carrying Psyche on the way to orbital escape velocity.
Psyche is the first NASA mission to launch on a Falcon Heavy. According to Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, 16 Psyche is the biggest among the "nine metal-rich asteroids known to exist in our solar system." It is reportedly bigger than the state of Connecticut.
