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Dec 3, 2018

NASA spacecraft meets with asteroid today

Posted by in category: space

Over the next year, OSIRIS-REx will survey the asteroid using five scientific instruments on board the spacecraft. These instruments will help it determine a safe location from which to collect a small sample from Bennu’s surface that will be returned to Earth in September 2023.

“Bennu’s low gravity provides a unique challenge for the mission,” said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “At roughly 0.3 mile in diameter, Bennu will be the smallest object that any spacecraft has ever orbited.”

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