swing-by

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swing-by

(swĭng′bī′)

n. pl. swing-bys

A maneuver in which a spacecraft uses the gravitation of a planet or other celestial body to effect changes in its course and speed as it passes by.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

swing′-by`

a trajectory that uses the gravitational field of one celestial body to alter the course of a spacecraft destined for another body.

[1960–65]

References in periodicals archive ?

Formerly known as Planet B, the 258- kilogram craft made swingbys of the Earth and Moon in December to pick up the needed speed to reach Mars in October 1999.

A Master Plan For Mars

But NASA's own analysis contradicts this, saying that "5 billion [people]...at the time of the swingbys could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure" from the release of plutonium in an accident during the slingshot maneuver.

NASA nuclear roulette: the Cassini mission's plutonium peril

According to the NASA Environmental Impact Statement "approximately 5 million of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time of the swingbys could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure" if there is an inadvertent reentry of the probe.