NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record

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 broke a space exploration record. The spacecraft entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, and made Bennu the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.

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On Dec. 31, 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft went into orbit around asteroid Bennu for the first time.

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On Dec. 31, 2018, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft entered orbit around asteroid Bennu — setting new records for the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft and the closest orbit of a planetary body by any spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx will remain in orbit until mid-February 2019 when the spacecraft will begin a series of flybys that allow it to conduct a more detailed survey of the asteroid's surface. It will enter orbit a second time in mid-2019.