The launch of the Psyche space probe was postponed due to bad weather conditions

The launch of the Psyche space probe to the asteroid of the same name must be postponed until Friday. (Archive photo) KEYSTONE/EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH sda-ats

This content was published on 12 October 2023 – 09:35

(Keystone SDA)

The launch of the Psyche space probe towards an asteroid of the same name was postponed by one day to Friday due to bad weather conditions. This was announced by the US space agency NASA on Thursday evening.

“Psyche” was scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Spaceport in the US state of Florida on Thursday afternoon (4:19 pm) aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX.

The probe, which has the size of a tennis court and has solar sails, was actually scheduled to launch in 2022, but had to be postponed due to computer problems. Psyche has to travel about 3.5 billion kilometers to reach the asteroid, which is why it won’t be able to get there until 2029 at the earliest.

The asteroid Psyche orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. According to preliminary results, it contains a lot of minerals. The probe aims to explore its composition and thus give researchers a better idea about the composition of asteroids, planets, and our solar system.