NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Month-Long Timelapse of Mars During Gravity Assist

NASA's Psyche spacecraft, en route to the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, captured a month-long timelapse of Mars during a gravity assist flyby in May 2026. The spacecraft came within 2,864 miles (4,609 km) of the Red Planet on May 15, 2026. The timelapse, released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shows Mars growing from a distant crescent to filling the frame, then reveals close-up surface details. The flyby was used to test Psyche's instruments, including its multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. The imager captured thousands of photos, including rare views and the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. The magnetometer detected an uptick in magnetic field at the bow shock region. The spectrometer performed as expected, detecting neutron count-rate enhancement but no gamma rays from Mars. The gravity assist adjusted Psyche's speed and trajectory toward its primary target, the asteroid 16 Psyche, expected to be reached in summer 2029. The spacecraft's top speed is approximately 124,000 mph (200,000 km/h). The Psyche team is comparing images with those from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity, and Perseverance for calibration. The mission is led by principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton at UC Berkeley, with instrument leads at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, MIT, and Arizona State University.