NASA
- NASA cleared key hurdles that allow it to launch a spacecraft to the asteroid in October.
- The asteroid is thought to be made up of gold, iron and nickel, with its value estimated at $10 quintillion.
- The spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX rocket, and head to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
NASA announced that it's just under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft designed to study an asteroid potentially worth $10 quintillion.
The space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab said Tuesday that it recently completed a comprehensive test of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft. That cleared a key hurdle that earlier caused the probe to miss its original 2022 launch date.