Psyche's Mars flyby yields stunning images en route to a metal-rich asteroid
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft used Mars as a gravity assist on its way to the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, flying within about 2,864 miles of the planet and capturing thousands of images with its multispectral imager. The Mars flyby provided roughly a 1,000 mph speed boost and nudged the trajectory by about a degree, keeping the 2029 arrival on track and showcasing early image processing and deep-space communications testing (DSOC).