NASA's Psyche Completes 2,800-Mile Mars Flyby, Gains 1,000-MPH Boost for 2029 Asteroid Rendezvous
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 26
NASA's Psyche Completes 2,800-Mile Mars Flyby, Gains 1,000-MPH Boost for 2029 Asteroid Rendezvous
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 26
Summary
May 15 brought Psyche within 2,800 miles of Mars, where the spacecraft completed a gravity-assist flyby that set its course toward asteroid Psyche for a planned summer 2029 arrival.
NASA said the pass added 1,000 mph and shifted the probe's orbital plane by about 1 degree, letting it gain speed without using xenon propellant before solar-electric thrusting resumes this fall.
The close approach also served as a mission rehearsal: instruments captured a Mars timelapse and nighttime crescent views while calibrating sensors and observing the planet's bow shock, south polar cap and Huygens crater.
Launched in 2023, the spacecraft is headed to a roughly 170-mile-wide asteroid in the main belt that scientists suspect could expose part of an ancient metal-rich planetary core.