Dugway Proving Ground (Utah): NASA Team helped by US Air Force is on the recovery site where the canister carrying the largest ever Asteroid sample landed softly under parachutes released by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
"Having received the capsule’s precise coordinates from radar trackers when it landed, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx helicopter recovery team arrived at its landing location within 20 minutes", NASA said.
"A U.S. Air Force munitions specialist was the first person to disembark a helicopter. His task was to identify and clear the area around the capsule of any possible munitions left over from military training. He also marked a safe approach path with small flags for the OSIRIS-REx team members who will be working with and around the capsule", it added.
08:55 AM: OSIRIS-REx spacecraft Capsule or Canister carrying the asteroid Bennu sample touched down the Earth, the touchdown time 08:52 AM, NASA team said.
"The U.S. has, for the first time, delivered rocks and dust from an asteroid to Earth", NASA said.
"OSIRIS-REx sample capsule, carrying a sample of asteroid Bennu, touched down on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52 a.m. EDT (8:52 a.m. MDT)", the space agency added.
NASA further said that the recovery operation comprising 04 helicopters has begun.
07:00 AM: OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is set for capsule landing on Earth, the first ever Asteroid sample, in less than an hour after remaining in space for more than seven years, NASA team announced from the Desert of Northeast Utah.
"OSIRIS-REx and military recovery team members aboard four helicopters and two backup ground vehicles are waiting just outside the capsule’s designated landing area on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range in order to get to the capsule as quickly as possible once it touches down", NASA said.
REx - a robotic probe to one of the most potentially hazardous of the known near-Earth objects (NEOs), was launched on September 08, 2016.
06:30 AM: In a first, NASA scientists are preparing for a ‘special delivery’ by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on September 24. The package will contain the first-ever US sample collected from asteroid Bennu in 2020.
NASA Sunday September 24, 2023 is broadcasting live the arrival of the package containing the first-ever US sample collected from Asteroid Bennu in 2020.
The package will be delivered by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
OSIRIS-REx – Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, is the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. It is carrying an estimated 8.8 ounces (about 250 grams) of rocky material collected from the surface of Bennu.
OSIRIS-REx collected the sample from asteroid Bennu, which is currently more than 321 million kilometres from Earth, October 20, 2020. After nearly five years in space, the spacecraft started its journey back to Earth in May 2021 and likely to reach the Earth today i.e. September 24, 2023.
Ahead of the asteroid sample arrival today, US space agency said weather condition is "favorable for sample return".
"A weather briefing today predicted a dry Sept. 24 with low winds. These are optimal conditions for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample recovery team", NASA said.
Earlier, OSIRIS-REx made final course adjustment before the asteroid sample delivery Sunday.
"On Sept. 17, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx engineers slightly shifted the spacecraft’s trajectory to refine the landing location of its sample capsule, which the spacecraft will deliver to Earth on Sept. 24. The spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters Sunday to change its velocity by 7 inches per minute (3 millimeters per second) relative to Earth", NASA said. "This final correction maneuver moved the sample capsule’s predicted landing location east by nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, to the center of its predetermined landing zone inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range", it said.
"On Sept. 17, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx engineers slightly shifted the spacecraft’s trajectory to refine the landing location of its sample capsule, which the spacecraft will deliver to Earth on Sept. 24. The spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters Sunday to change its velocity by 7 inches per minute (3 millimeters per second) relative to Earth", NASA said.
"This final correction maneuver moved the sample capsule’s predicted landing location east by nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, to the center of its predetermined landing zone inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range", it said.
NASA’s live coverage of the OSIRIS-REx capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT) on Sunday, Sept. 24, and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
The Asteroid sample is special because the rubble is expected to provide new insights into our Solar System’s formation more than 4.5 billion years ago. It also will shed light on the role that asteroids may have played in delivering water and organic molecules, the building blocks of life on Earth.
“The safe and successful return of a sample from the surface of an asteroid is the crowning moment of the program. From day one, it has been the single focus,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
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