NASA Provides Live Coverage of Spacecraft Arrival at Asteroid

Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

This "super-resolution” view of asteroid Bennu was created using eight images obtained by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Oct. 29, 2018, from a distance of about 205 miles (330 kilometers).

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with its targeted asteroid, Bennu, on Monday, Dec. 3 at approximately noon EST.

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Source / Image Courtesy

NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018) is entering its approach phase.

OSIRIS-REx will arrive at asteroid Bennu in December, 2018. OSIRIS-REx will help unveil the mysteries of our solar system's formation.

According to a report by Digital Trends, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is quickly approaching its target of the Bennu asteroid.

On October 16 NASA confirmed that an important step had been taken, as the craft unfurled its robotic arm and tested it to confirm it would be ready to go when it reaches the asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx is expected to arrive at Bennu in about two weeks. Digital Trends reports that its mission is to collect a sample of rock and dirt from its surface in July 2020, before turning around and delivering it back to Earth, hopefully arriving in the west desert of Utah in 2023.