SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches NASA Probe Toward $10,000 Quadrillion Asteroid

SpaceX just launched humanity's most valuable cargo — a spacecraft headed to an asteroid worth more than all the money on Earth combined. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 3:14 AM ET, carrying NASA's Psyche probe toward 16 Psyche, an asteroid so dense with metal that some estimates put its value at $10,000 quadrillion.

While NASA emphasizes this is a purely scientific mission, the commercial implications are impossible to ignore. Companies like AstroForge and TransAstra are already developing asteroid mining technology, and 16 Psyche represents the ultimate prize — a single object that could theoretically supply Earth's metal needs for millions of years.

"Psyche isn't just a science mission. It's proof we can reach the solar system's resources. Today's exploration technology is the foundation for tomorrow's space economy."

— NASA Administrator

The Falcon Heavy's side boosters executed a flawless synchronized landing at Cape Canaveral — always a spectacular sight — while the center core was expended to maximize Psyche's velocity toward its interplanetary trajectory.