NASA Spacecraft to Fly Past Mars This Week, on Voyage to Rare Metal Asteroid
The flyby will boost Psyche’s speed and let NASA test cameras and other instruments before the spacecraft reaches asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.
- On Friday, May 15, 2026, NASA's Psyche spacecraft will perform a close Mars flyby, coming within 2,800 miles of the surface to adjust its trajectory toward the asteroid belt.
- Launched in 2023, the robotic explorer travels toward a metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche to study its composition and reveal details about the dawn of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
- During the encounter, the spacecraft will travel at 12,333 mph , while Arizona State University's Jim Bell, the imaging team leader, said the flyby provides "just plain beautiful photos" of Mars.
- Psyche's cameras are already photographing Mars as the spacecraft approaches, capturing images scientists plan to assemble into a timelapse in the coming weeks for detailed analysis.
- Arriving at the asteroid in 2029, the mission will spend two years studying whether the object is an exposed planet core or rubble pile, potentially revealing how Earth spawned life.
63 Articles
63 Articles
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which set out in search of a metallic asteroid worth 1 quadrillion dollars, has passed halfway through its journey by flying 3.6 billion kilometers toward an iron- and nickel-rich metallic asteroid, aiming to reach Asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.
NASA's Psyche mission set for a brief encounter with Mars
More than two years after launch, NASA's Psyche mission will whizz past Mars on May 15, using the planet's gravity to tweak its trajectory and accelerate on to its asteroid destination. The spacecraft, which was launched on October 13, 2023, will pass just 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) above the surface of the red planet at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph) on its way to the metal-rich asteroid, Psyche. In February, the spacecraft's thrusters were fired …
NASA’s Psyche swings past Mars on journey to mysterious metal asteroid
The crucial manoeuvre scheduled for Friday will use the gravity of Mars to shift Psyche onto the right path, a faster and cheaper method NASA scientists say could help unlock clues about the birth of Earth.
NASA's probe nears Mars for gravity boost
NASA's Psyche probe was headed for a close encounter with Mars on Friday and a planned gravity boost to set the spacecraft on its final course to the solar system's largest known metallic asteroid, thought to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet. The Psyche probe, named for the asteroid it was designed to explore, was launched in October 2023 on a planned voyage of 2.2 billion miles and is expected to reach its destination on the outer …
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