Successful Second Deep Space Maneuver for OSIRIS-REx Confirmed

New tracking data confirms that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully completed its second Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-2) on June 28. The thruster burn put the spacecraft on course for a series of asteroid approach maneuvers to be executed this fall that will culminate with the spacecraft’s scheduled arrival at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3.

Continued...
Source

Credits: University of Arizona

Illustration of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a burn of its main engine

Source / Image Courtesy

Composite animation showing key events during the OSIRIS-REx mission, scheduled to retrieve a sample from the surface of asteroid 1999 RQ36.

OSIRIS-REx will visit a Near Earth asteroid called Bennu and return with samples that may hold clues to the origins of the solar system and perhaps life itself.

It will also investigate the asteroid's chance of impacting Earth in 2182.