NASA's Psyche Mission Says Goodbye to Mars and Heads for its Metal-Rich Target

NASA's Psyche captured this false colour image of Mars during its recent flyby of the planet on May 15th. The spacecraft captured this image with its multispectral imager. The flyby was a trial run for its encounter with the asteroid Psyche, and was also a gravity-assist maneuver that helped send the spacecraft on its way. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Spacecraft often use planets for gravity-assist or "slingshot" maneuvers. NASA's Psyche mission used Mars for that purpose during a May 15th flyby. The flyby accelerated the spacecraft and aimed it at its eventual destination, the asteroid 16 Psyche. The flyby was also an opportunity to take some pictures of Mars, and to test and calibrate the spacecraft's science instruments.

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Researchers Match Up 12 Meteorites with the Near-Earth Asteroids They Came From

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