NASA has given an update on its mission to capture an asteroid worth $10,000 quadrillion.
Last year, the space agency announced that it was going to set off for the faraway asteroid named 16 Psyche, which is thought to contain precious metals, including gold, iron and nickel, worth an eye-watering amount.
“Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form,” NASA said in a statement released in July 2023.
The spacecraft was then launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 13, 2023.
The vessel has been travelling a journey of 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) at a speed of approximately 84,000mph through space and is expected to reach the asteroid in August 2029.
In the latest update, the spacecraft is now in ‘full cruise’ mode and will use what NASA calls its ‘sci-fi-worthy’ thrusters to expel xenon ions.
