gravity assist

American  

noun

1. the technique of using the energy of a gravitational field and the orbital velocity of a planet to change the speed and trajectory of a spacecraft.

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Example Sentences

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gravity assist

This technique, known as a gravity assist, helped place Psyche on the correct path toward its ultimate destination, the metal-rich asteroid Psyche.

From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026

It will get a gravity assist by sling-shotting around Mars early next year, then boomerang back around Earth in late 2026 before zooming toward the gas giant and its icy, dynamic moon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2024

After leaving Dinky, the probe will head back to Earth for a gravity assist maneuver in December 2024.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 8, 2023

We’ll use a gravity assist from the moon and then the Earth to make the orbital capture.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2023

This enabled the two Voyagers to use a "gravity assist" technique in which the craft were successively flung from one gassy giant to the next in a kind of cosmic version of "crack the whip."

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson