Psyche Mission
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images Details of Martian Surface During Flyby
Description Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA’s Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color mosaic created from four individual images acquired on May 15, 2026, during the spacecraft’s flyby of Mars. Psyche was traveling from right to left (northeast to southwest on Mars) during the six minutes that it took to acquire the images for this mosaic, and the pixel…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Sees Mars’ South Pole After Flyby
Description This is Psyche’s first view of a nearly “full Mars” seen shortly after the spacecraft’s closest approach to the planet on May 15, 2026. The view extends from the south polar cap northwards to the Valles Marineris canyon system and beyond. With Mars in the rearview mirror, the spacecraft will soon resume use of its solar-electric propulsion system to…
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Press Releases
Psyche’s High-Resolution View of Mars’ South Pole
Description This is the highest-resolution view of the water ice-rich south polar cap of Mars captured by NASA’s Psyche mission after it made its close approach with the planet for a gravity assist. The image scale is around 0.7 miles per pixel (1.14 kilometers per pixel). The cap itself extends across more than 430 miles (700 kilometers). The image was…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images the Crescent of Mars
Description This view of a crescent Mars was captured on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 a.m. PDT by NASA’s Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. Captured by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument, this was the last view of the whole planet before it began to overfill the field of view of the camera. Because…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images Mars’ Huygens Crater
Description Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA’s Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color view of the large double-ring crater Huygens (upper right; about 290 miles, or 470 kilometers, in diameter) and the surrounding heavily cratered southern highlands near 15 degrees south latitude. The various colors in this dramatic scene are likely due to differences in the compositional properties…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Captures Mars During Gravity Assist Approach
Description 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…
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NASA
Visiting Mars on the Way to the Outer Solar System
Recently Mars has had a few Earthly visitors. On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper flew within 550 miles (884 kilometers) of the Red Planet’s surface on its way out to Jupiter. On March 12, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft flew within about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Mars, and only 300 kilometers from its moon, Deimos. Hera is on its way to study…
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NASA
Journey to a Metal-Rich World: NASA’s Psyche Is Ready to Launch
The spacecraft is targeting an Oct. 12 liftoff atop a Falcon Heavy rocket. Its destination, a metal-rich asteroid, may tell us more about how planets form. In less than 24 hours, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is slated to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With its sights set on a mysterious asteroid of the same name, Psyche is NASA’s first…
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NASA
NASA to Discuss Conclusions of Psyche Mission Independent Review Board
NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 5, to discuss the follow-up report by the Psyche mission independent review board. The new assessment reviews corrective actions taken following the November 2022 report. Audio of the media call will stream live at: https://www.nasa.gov/live Convened in July 2022 by NASA and the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in…
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NASA
NASA to Discuss Psyche Independent Review Board Results
NASA will host a community townhall at 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, Nov. 4, followed by a media teleconference at 1 p.m. to discuss the findings and recommendations of a report by the Psyche mission independent review board. The board, initiated by NASA and the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in July 2022, examined the causes of the Psyche mission missing…
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