NASA JPL

Psyche Spacecraft Prepares for Mars Flyby

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is set for a close Mars flyby on May 15, 2026, skimming just 3,000 miles above the Red Planet. The maneuver serves as a gravity‑assist, using Mars’s pull to boost velocity and, crucially, to tilt the spacecraft’s orbital plane by roughly three degrees so it can intersect the trajectory of its ultimate target, the metal‑rich asteroid Psyche. Launched from Kennedy Space Center on October 13, 2023, Psyche has been cruising through deep space with all scientific payloads online. The gravity assist will not only increase speed but also align the spacecraft with the asteroid’s orbital plane, a maneuver impossible without Mars’s gravitational boost. During the encounter, the imaging suite will be especially active, capturing timelapse footage of Mars as a thin crescent, creating a short video of the planet’s approach and departure. Mission scientists expressed excitement about the visual data, noting that the high‑phase view offers a rare perspective of Mars’s limb and atmospheric glow. The flyby will also serve as a systems check, confirming that instruments remain fully functional before the long cruise to Psyche, where they will map the asteroid’s geology, composition, magnetic and gravitational fields. Successfully leveraging Mars’s gravity positions Psyche to reach its primary science target—a presumed exposed planetary core—providing unprecedented insight into early solar‑system building blocks and the formation of terrestrial planets like Earth.