NASA’s Psyche Mission Captures Mars During Gravity Assist Approach (Colorized)
This colorized image of Mars was captured by NASA’s Psyche mission on May 3, 2026, about 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometers) from the planet. The spacecraft is approaching the planet for a gravity assist on May 15 that will give it a boost in speed and adjust its trajectory toward asteroid Psyche for eventual arrival in 2029.
The spacecraft is approaching Mars from a high-phase angle, meaning that the planet appears only as a thin crescent, like our own crescent Moon seen around its new Moon phase. From this viewing geometry, the Sun is out of frame and “above” both Mars and Psyche.
The Psyche mission’s imager team will be acquiring, processing, and interpreting similar images in the lead-up to the close approach on May 15. The images are primarily designed to calibrate the cameras and to characterize their performance in flight as a practice run for the approach to asteroid Psyche in 2029.
For more information about the Psyche mission, read: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/
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