gravity assist
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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 skimming the inner edge of the main asteroid belt, Lucy heads back toward Earth for a gravity assist in December 2024.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024
We’ll use a gravity assist from the moon and then the Earth to make the orbital capture.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2023
When the Voyagers were being built, only one spacecraft had used a gravity assist to reach another planet—the Mariner 10 probe got one from Venus while en route to Mercury.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 16, 2022
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
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