WASHINGTON — The launch of NASA’s Psyche mission represents the beginning of the agency’s use of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which the agency will rely upon for some of its biggest science and exploration missions this decade.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...