NASA’s Psyche spacecraft used Mars as a gravitational slingshot on 15 May 2026, skimming within 2,864 miles of the surface and walking away 1,000 miles per hour faster — burning no fuel in the process — on its way to an asteroid that may be the exposed metal core of a dead planet

NASA's Psyche probe gained 1,000 mph from Mars without using propellant during the flyby. The physics is exact, while the asteroid's core identity remains a hypothesis. The post NASA’s Psyche spacecraft used Mars as a gravitational slingshot on 15 May 2026, skimming within 2,864 miles of the surface and walking away 1,000 miles per hour faster — burning no fuel in the process — on its way to an…