Back to Article List From the December 2007 issue How do gravity assists work? Alex Forbes, Castro Valley, California By Astronomy Staff | Published: December 1, 2007 | Last updated on May 18, 2023 By passing near a large body, a spacecraft can radically alter its speed and trajectory without expending any fuel. This may sound like a free lunch, but it isn’t.
Robotic Spaceflight, Space Exploration How China’s Chang’e 6 mission snagged the first samples of the Moon’s farside
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