NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Completes Mars Flyby, Advances Toward Metal-Rich Asteroid

NASA's Psyche spacecraft, en route to the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, executed a gravity-assist flyby of Mars on May 15, 2026. The maneuver brought the spacecraft within approximately 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet's surface, providing a critical speed boost and trajectory adjustment without expending onboard propellant.

"We’ve confirmed that Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000 mile‑per‑hour boost and shifted its orbital plane by about 1 degree relative to the Sun," said Don Han, Psyche’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029."

During the flyby, Psyche's multispectral imager captured thousands of images of Mars, including views of the planet's crescent phase, the south polar ice cap, and wind-streaked craters. These observations serve both as calibration for the spacecraft's instruments and as valuable scientific data.

Launched in October 2023, the Psyche mission aims to study asteroid 16 Psyche, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is believed to be the exposed core of an early planetary building block, offering insights into the interiors of terrestrial planets like Earth. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at its destination in August 2029 and will spend approximately two years orbiting and analyzing the asteroid.