8 years, 6 months ago

NASA test fires OSIRIS-REx thrusters during the journey to Asteroid Bennu

The US space agency has successfully maneuvered its spacecraft on way to asteroid Bennu, fine-tuning its trajectory to reach it and bring back samples from a potentially dangerous asteroid that could collide with the Earth. “We’re very excited about what this mission can tell us about the origin of our solar system, and we celebrate the bigger picture of science that is helping us make discoveries and accomplish milestones that might have been science fiction yesterday, but are science facts today,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. The $800 million mission’s main goal is to collect a small sample of rocks and surface soil from Bennu that finds a place in NASA’s list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. If all goes according to plan, OSIRIS-REx will arrive in August 2018 and spend the next two years photographing and mapping the asteroid’s surface to better understand its chemical and mineralogical composition, including selecting the sample site.

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