Apr 22, 2019

Last week was the conclusion of the mission’s Detailed Survey: Baseball Diamond phase. Each week during this phase the spacecraft executed a flyby of Bennu at a different observing angle.

On April 18 and 19, the spacecraft performed Flyby 7, during which it observed Bennu with MapCam, OLA and OTES at the 12:30 pm local solar time position. The pass was divided into two phases – A and B. Flyby 7A occurred over Bennu’s northern hemisphere at 40°latitude from a distance of 3.8 km. Flyby 7B occurred over Bennu’s southern hemisphere at -40°latitude, also from a distance of 3.8 km. During both phases, the spacecraft slewed east, west and straight down to image every 24°of Bennu’s rotation.

Next week, the mission moves into Detailed Survey: Equatorial Stations phase.

On Earth, a contingent from the OSIRIS-REx team, including the PI, traveled to Japan last week for a technical interchange meeting with JAXA’s Hayabusa2 team. The topics discussed included the first Hayabusa2 sample collection event and OSIRIS-REx sample site selection.