NASA's Psyche Mission: Exploring a Metal-Rich Asteroid with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket

NASA has reserved five launches on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket over the next few years, marking the start of the agency's Falcon Heavy era. These launches will cover a range of missions, including deep space probes, astronomical observatories, weather satellites, and the keystone to NASA's Gateway mini-space station. The Psyche asteroid mission, scheduled for launch this week, is the first of these reserved launches. In total, there are up to 10 Falcon Heavy missions contracted with SpaceX, with NASA driving demand for nine of them. Despite competition from other rockets, the Falcon Heavy remains the most powerful operational commercial rocket and has a successful track record.