Psyche Spacecraft Uses Mars for Gravity Assist

On its way to the asteroid Psyche, the Psyche spacecraft will pass within 4,500 km of Mars and will harness the planet’s gravitational pull to speed up and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid. The spacecraft was launched October 13, 2023, and by August 2029, the spacecraft will begin to orbit the 173-mile-wide (279-kilometer-wide) asteroid – the only metal-class asteroid ever to be explored. Because of Psyche’s high iron-nickel metal content, scientists think it may be the partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet. The goal is a 26-month science investigation. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-psyche-spacecraft-optical-comms-demo-en-route-to-asteroid/