flyby

American  

[flahy-bahy] / ˈflaɪˌbaɪ /

Or fly-by

noun

flybys plural

1. the flight of a spacecraft close enough to a celestial object, as a planet, to gather scientific data.

2. Aeronautics.

   1. Also called flypast.  a low-altitude flight of an aircraft for the benefit of ground observers.

   2. flyover.

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flyby British  

/ ˈflaɪˌbaɪ /

noun

1. a flight past a particular position or target, esp the close approach of a spacecraft to a planet or satellite for investigation of conditions

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flybys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flyby

1950–55, noun use of verb phrase fly by

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flyby flybys

Before we do a “House of the Dragon” flyby to examine its place in high fantasy’s conquest of TV and film, let’s talk about Sheepstealer.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

This past spring's Artemis 2 mission saw humans conduct a lunar flyby, but the third phase will stay closer to Earth.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

While SpaceX was not directly involved in NASA's historic flyby of the Moon in April known as Artemis II, it will play a key role in the Artemis program's future.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

During the days leading up to the flyby and at closest approach, engineers powered up the spacecraft's imagers, magnetometers, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer.

From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026

"With twenty percent of normal daylight, it'll take five times as long to get the same energy. It'll turn his forty five-sol trip into two hundred and twenty-five sols. He'll miss the Hermes flyby."

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

Once there, it will orbit Jupiter and carry out 49 close flybys of the moon Europa.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 20, 2025

“Juno had two really close flybys of Io during Juno’s extended mission,” Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, the mission’s principal investigator, said in a statement.

From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2025

It needed to make nine flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury before it could reach the right speed to be captured by Mercury's gravity.

From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2025

To get there, the spacecraft has to follow a circuitous flight path that so far has included a swing around Earth, two Venus flybys, and three passes by Mercury.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 3, 2024

The spacecraft will make dozens of close flybys of Europa — nearly the size of our moon — while orbiting the giant gas planet.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024