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Psyche Probe Flies 2,800 Miles Past Mars, Boosts Toward Asteroid

5/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

The Psyche spacecraft will fly within 2,800 miles of Mars on Friday, May 15, 2026, traveling at 12,333 mph to use the planet’s gravity to boost toward asteroid 16 Psyche.
A 12-hour thruster burn on Feb. 23 performed a trajectory-correction maneuver that refined the approach.
The multispectral imager will capture observations for calibration while NASA’s Deep Space Network and data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity and ESA’s Mars Express will verify the gravity-assist.

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Story summary

The Psyche spacecraft will fly within 2,800 miles of Mars on Friday, May 15, 2026, traveling at 12,333 mph to use the planet’s gravity to boost toward asteroid 16 Psyche.
A 12-hour thruster burn on Feb. 23 performed a trajectory-correction maneuver that refined the approach.
The multispectral imager will capture observations for calibration while NASA’s Deep Space Network and data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity and ESA’s Mars Express will verify the gravity-assist.