NASA to send billion-dollar spacecraft to metal asteroid in hopes of finding gemstones

NASA will launch a spacecraft Friday to a metal asteroid in hopes of finding diamonds and rubies.

The mysterious metal asteroid — known as 16 Psyche — is located between Mars and Jupiter and it will take the spacecraft seven years to reach the potentially lucrative rock.

“I hope we might find diamonds and rubies on that asteroid,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference.

The spacecraft Falcon Heavy – made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX – was originally scheduled to launch today, but was postponed until Friday due to “unfavorable weather conditions,” NASA said.

It will take off on its 4-billion-mile journey on Friday at 10:19 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it reenters Earth, it will land in Utah, according to Nelson.

By May 2026, the spacecraft will fly by Mars and will use the planet’s gravity to slingshot itself toward the asteroid, according to The Telegraph.

It is expected to reach the rock by 2030, where it will spend 26 months in orbit to gather images and record topography.

The potato-shaped asteroid was first discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. The asteroid is special due to being “metal rich,” NASA scientists said, and could be the “core of an early planetesimal.”

Scientists speculate that the rock lost its outer shell after several violent collisions billions of years ago, according to The Telegraph.

It will be the first metal object that humankind has ever visited, NASA said.