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https://www.wsj.com/science/space-astronomy/nasa-psyche-mission-launch-asteroid-metal-fd23fca

NASA’s Journey to a Metal-Rich Asteroid Blasts Off

Mission to Psyche will give insights into possible mining on distant worlds, origin of Earth’s core

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off carrying a NASA spacecraft to investigate the Psyche asteroid from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday. joe skipper/Reuters
By Aylin Woodward

An unprecedented mission to a metal-rich asteroid launched on Friday—paving the way for companies to, one day, mine similar celestial bodies for ore. 

“We’re prospecting,” said Jim Bell, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University. “We’re going to look at an example of the kind of object we probably will mine decades to centuries from now.”

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Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.