By KiddieDaily Editors · Jul 21, 2026 · 2 min read · Ages 8–10 · 3 sources

Another new Psyche mission flyby image of Mars

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On July 17, 2026, NASA released one more image – really a composite of 13 images – as the Psyche mission swung past Mars for a gravity assist. The Psyche mission, on its way to asteroid 16 Psyche, flew past Mars in May. The images above are a collection from between May 2 and 15, 2026, as the space probe grew nearer to the red planet.

On Psyche’s approach, the angle of the sun meant the planet appeared as a lit crescent. The team has also put together a time lapse of Psyche’s encounter with Mars. We get to see the approaching ruddy crescent, a view looking down at Martian craters, and then the red planet with its south polar ice cap recede from view as the space probe heads off toward the asteroid belt.

The Psyche mission successfully completed its flyby of Mars on May 15, 2026. Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000-mile-per-hour (1,600-km-per-hour) critical gravity assist. It also moved its orbit by about 1 degree.

So the spacecraft is now successfully it on track toward the asteroid 16 Psyche. See some of the new images of the flyby below. Because of the angle of Psyche’s approach, Mars appeared first as a crescent.

Then it saw a more fully lit Mars as it flew away. The Psyche spacecraft, launched in 2023, is headed toward a rare metal asteroid, also named Psyche (16 Psyche, the 16th known asteroid ever discovered). But in order to get out to the asteroid belt, the spacecraft made a close flyby of Mars to adjust its direction and pick up a boost of speed on May 15, 2026.

Psyche came within 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) of the red planet’s surface. That’s closer than Earth’s geostationary satellites. The spacecraft was traveling at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph).

The maneuver used Mars’ gravity as a “slingshot” to accelerate the probe and tilt its trajectory toward its final destination, the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche.

How 🌍 NASA Earth Covers It

Description This composite of images taken by NASA’s Psyche mission shows the crescent of Mars grow as the spacecraft approached the planet for a gravity assist from May 2 to May 15, 2026. The series begins with the smallest crescent at the center of the of the image as Mars is farthest from the spacecraft, and progressively grows as the spacecraft gets closer. After these views were captured by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument, Mars began to overfill the field of view as Psyche made close approach with the planet and captured a series of high-resolution images of the surface.

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