Seven years is a long time to wait for your carrier service to deliver a package. That’s how long it’s been since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set off to gather rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu. But the package is now nearly out for delivery.
This is the third mission to retrieve bits of an asteroid, and the first for NASA and the United States. The amount of asteroid material onboard this time far exceeds the micrograms that Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft returned in 2005, from the asteroid Itokawa, and the five grams that Hayabusa2 collected in 2018 from Ryugu (SN: 6/14/10; SN: 12/7/20).
The Bennu sample is scheduled to arrive with a timing and precision that would make most terrestrial delivery services jealous. After a three-year journey back from the asteroid, the capsule should enter the atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. EDT, NASA says. Following an initially scorching descent, the capsule will release a parachute and descend to its destination at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah.
Live coverage of the event will be available on NASA’s website starting at 10 a.m. EDT.
2023-09-22 07:00:00
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