NASA ASTEROID MISSION ON HOLD DUE TO LATE SOFTWARE DELIVERY

NASA put an asteroid mission on hold, blaming the late delivery of its own navigation software.

The Psyche mission to a strange metal asteroid of the same name was supposed to launch this September or October. But the agency's Jet Propulsion Lab was several months late delivering its software for navigation, guidance, and control -- a crucial part of any spacecraft. Engineers "just ran out of time" to test it, officials said.

Now the space agency is going to step back, and an independent review will look at what went wrong when the spacecraft could launch again, and even if it should go ahead, NASA planetary sciences chief Lori Glaze said.