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See NASA's Stunning New Images of Mars Captured During an Asteroid-Bound Spacecraft's Strategic Flyby
Key takeaways
- Carlyn Kranking | Associate Web Editor, Science
- Psyche, a mission that will study a space rock of the same name, made its closest approach to Mars on May 15, passing within 2,864 miles of its rocky surface.
- “We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029,” Don Han, the mission’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says in a statement.
Carlyn Kranking | Associate Web Editor, Science
Add as preferred source As the Psyche spacecraft approached Mars from its night side, the red planet looked like a crescent. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU En route to the largest known metallic asteroid in our solar system, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft just got a boost from Mars—and a rare look at the red planet.
Psyche, a mission that will study a space rock of the same name, made its closest approach to Mars on May 15, passing within 2,864 miles of its rocky surface. The maneuver used the planet’s gravity to ramp up the spacecraft’s speed by 1,000 miles per hour without using any onboard propellant, and it put Psyche on the right trajectory to reach its target.
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