New timelapse video shows NASA's Psyche spacecraft zooming by Mars - Space

What the report says

Space.com reported that NASA has released a new time-lapse video showing the Psyche spacecraft’s May 2026 flyby of Mars, an encounter that both produced striking imagery and helped steer the mission toward its target asteroid. The video, assembled from images taken during the month, shows Mars growing from a thin crescent into a detailed disk and then shrinking away after closest approach.

According to the report, Psyche passed about 2,864 miles, or 4,609 kilometers, above Mars on May 15. The spacecraft used the planet’s gravity to gain roughly 1,000 mph and refine its path toward asteroid Psyche, a metal-rich body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA expects the spacecraft to arrive in summer 2029. Bob Mase, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the navigation team achieved the planned trajectory.

The flyby also gave mission teams a chance to test Psyche’s science instruments on a familiar planetary target. Space.com, citing NASA, reported that all three instrument systems performed as expected. The gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer measured the anticipated increase in escaping neutrons near Mars, the magnetometer recorded its first planetary magnetic signature since the spacecraft’s 2023 launch, and the twin multispectral cameras captured the images used in the time-lapse.

The mission team did not expect major new findings about Mars, which has been studied extensively, but principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton said the spacecraft’s viewing angle added useful data. The cameras also detected Phobos and Deimos, a rehearsal for searching for possible small moons around asteroid Psyche. NASA says the spacecraft remains healthy and on schedule to resume sustained solar-electric propulsion later in the fall.