Space

NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Stunning Time-Lapse of Mars Flyby

NASA's Psyche spacecraft, en route to a metal-rich asteroid, has delivered a remarkable time-lapse video of its May 2026 Mars flyby revealing the red planet from angles rarely seen before.

• On May 15, 2026, the Psyche spacecraft passed just 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) above the Martian surface at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph), using the planet's gravity to bend its trajectory and gain speed for the journey to the asteroid belt.
• The imaging team compiled a month-long time-lapse from May 2 to May 15, showing Mars growing from a distant dot to a crescent and then shrinking again as Psyche raced past. The video also captured the planet's swirling polar ice caps and dust features in rare detail.
• Psyche's destination is 16 Psyche, a 140-mile-wide asteroid that may be the exposed iron-nickel core of a failed protoplanet. The spacecraft is expected to arrive in 2029, and the Mars flyby saved roughly 200 kilograms of propellant that would otherwise have been needed for course correction.