What to know about the Psyche mission, NASA's long-awaited trip to a strange metal asteroid

 The heart of our own planet lies frustratingly out of reach of scientists, who are instead turning their sights to the skies to learn more about what's located far below Earth's rocky mantle and crust.

For years, scientists at NASA have been preparing for the highly anticipated Psyche mission that will send off an uncrewed spacecraft on a long journey to reach a metal-rich asteroid that bears striking similarities to Earth's own core. But after a year-long delay, that long-anticipated mission is finally ready for liftoff as early as Thursday.

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With an ever-shortening launch window, the Psyche spacecraft named for the asteroid to which it's bound should soon be ready to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on SpaceX's triple-core Falcon H
eavy rocket. Ahead of the craft is a six-year, 2.2 billion-mile expedition to the Psyche asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Here's what to know about the Psyche mission.

Record space flight:Astronaut Frank Rubio spent a record 371 days in space. The trip was planned to be 6 months