NASA asteroid mission on hold due to late software delivery
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
NASA’s plan to explore a strange metal asteroid is on hold. The space agency was late delivering its own navigation software for the spacecraft called Psyche. NASA said Friday there will be an independent review to see what should be done with the nearly $1 billion mission. Nothing is wrong with the equipment or software, the agency just ran out of time to test the software properly. It could launch next year or in 2024. Psyche is just the latest in NASA’s fleet of asteroid-exploring spacecrafts. One is headed back to Earth with rubble collected from an asteroid.