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NASA Mission Selects Final Four Site Candidates for Asteroid Sample Return
August 12, 2019 -After months grappling with the rugged reality of asteroid Bennu’s surface, the team leading NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission has selected four potential sites for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource...
Asteroid Bennu’s Features To Be Named After Mythical Birds
August 8, 2019 -Working with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team, the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) approved the theme “birds and bird-like creatures in mythology” for naming surface features on...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Breaks Another Orbit Record
June 13, 2019 -On June 12, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft performed another significant navigation maneuver—breaking its own world record for the closest orbit of a planetary body by a spacecraft. The maneuver began the mission’s new phase,...
NASA Invites Public to Help Asteroid Mission Choose Sample Site
May 22, 2019 -Citizen scientists assemble! NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu needs extra pairs of eyes to help choose its sample collection site on the asteroid – and to look for anything else that might be scientifically...
NASA Mission Reveals Asteroid Has Big Surprises
March 19, 2019 -A NASA spacecraft that will return a sample of a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu to Earth in 2023 made the first-ever close-up observations of particle plumes erupting from an asteroid’s surface. Bennu also revealed itself to be more...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record
December 31, 2018 -At 2:43 p.m. EST on December 31, while many on Earth prepared to welcome the New Year, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 70 million miles (110 million kilometers) away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters – and...
NASA’s Newly Arrived OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Already Discovers Water on Asteroid
December 10, 2018 -Recently analyzed data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid...
NASA’S OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Arrives at Asteroid Bennu
December 3, 2018 -NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Executes Fourth Asteroid Approach Maneuver
November 13, 2018 -NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its fourth Asteroid Approach Maneuver (AAM-4) yesterday. The spacecraft fired its Attitude Control System (ACS) thrusters to slow the spacecraft from approximately 0.31 mph (0.14 m/sec) to 0.10...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Executes Third Asteroid Approach Maneuver
October 29, 2018 -NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its third Asteroid Approach Maneuver (AAM-3) today. The trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters fired in a series of two braking maneuvers designed to slow the spacecraft’s speed relative...