After Mars Slingshot, NASA’s Psyche Faces the Final Stretch to Metal Asteroid
LOS ANGELES, June 3, 2026, 4:03 PM PDT NASA says its Psyche spacecraft picked up speed and tweaked its course after skimming just 2,864 miles (4,609 km) from Mars on May 15. Don Han, who leads navigation for Psyche at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, put the gravity assist’s payoff at about a 1,000 mile-per-hour velocity kick and a one-degree tilt
