NASA's OSIRIS-REx Probe Prepares For Final Flyby of Asteroid Bennu Before Returning to Earth
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will get one last close encounter with Bennu on April 7 as it performs a final flyover to capture images of the asteroid’s surface. This final flyby of Bennu will provide the mission team an opportunity to learn how the spacecraft’s contact with Bennu’s surface altered the sample site and the region surrounding it. The spacecraft will remain in asteroid Bennu’s vicinity until May 10, when the mission will enter its Return Cruise phase and begin its two-year journey back to Earth. Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement that leaving Bennu’s surface in May will give them an apt chance when the departure manoeuvre will take up the least amount of the spacecraft’s onboard fuel.
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