Earlier this morning local time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX successfully launched the Psyche probe from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. It will orbit the metallic asteroid Psyche and reach its destination after traveling in space for six years.

It is part of NASA's effort to study outer space objects with the goal of making scientific discoveries and uncovering clues behind the birth of the universe and solar system. The satellite is mounted on SpaceX's largest rocket, Falcon Heavy, which will send it into an interstellar transfer orbit and begin a journey of millions of miles.

The Falcon Heavy spacecraft lifted off from KSC at 10:19 a.m. local time today. Prior to today's launch, the "Psyche" mission has experienced multiple delays, first when engineers discovered problems with its cold-gas thrusters, and then yesterday's high-altitude winds at KSC forced NASA and SpaceX to suspend the launch.

NASA revealed its first asteroid sample unearthed by its OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu earlier this month. However, unlike the Bennu mission, which brought a small piece of the asteroid to Earth, the Psyche mission is an imaging mission in which the spacecraft will orbit the asteroid at varying altitudes, ranging from dozens to hundreds of miles.

First discovered in 1852, the asteroid Psyche is 173 miles wide and has two crater-like depressions. A day on Psyche is equivalent to 4 Earth hours. Before today's launch, NASA tested its mission on a test platform on Earth to simulate actual conditions and ensure smooth communication with Psyche during launch. NASA also tested the Psyche spacecraft on Earth to confirm its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and a high-vibration environment during the Earth escape phase of launch.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft lifts off from Kennedy Space Center. Image: NASATV

Because the Psyche spacecraft must travel to another celestial body, it must wait longer than a typical satellite launch mission before separating from the Falcon Heavy second stage. This orbit also forces SpaceX to reuse only two of the three rocket boosters of the Falcon Heavy rocket, because higher orbits require more fuel, making rocket recovery difficult.

Except for the ignition flight of the three rocket boosters, the launch itself was a standard SpaceX launch. The two Falcon Heavy side boosters separated about two and a half minutes after liftoff. Minutes later, they made a controlled landing at Cape Canaveral Space Station after producing a huge sonic boom. In a cross-section of SpaceX's Psyche mission, the second-stage Merlin vacuum engine fires a second time about half an hour after the fairing separates.

NASA believes that the asteroid Psyche was once part of a larger body, which made its interior very hot and its core more massive and dense due to the heat and pressure inside. These properties are also the goals of the Psyche mission, NASA's attempt to learn more about the asteroid's past. The Psyche asteroid is the largest of the nine metallic asteroids discovered by NASA in the solar system. In order to efficiently travel to the asteroid, the Psyche spacecraft will use Hall thrusters. Compared with traditional chemical thrusters, the fuel consumption of the Hall thrusters is reduced by approximately 15 times. By simply orbiting Psyche, NASA will be able to create a global map of Psyche's elemental composition and better understand the metallic asteroid's properties.