NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will pass Earth this weekend, returning a sample gathered from the doubtless hazardous asteroid Bennu on Sunday (Sept. 24).
Fingers crossed that space enthusiasts may have the ability to look at the primary a part of this historic sample return mission — the primary time NASA has collected material from an asteroid and brought it home — live and without spending a dime online. That is that if all goes in line with plan for Italian astrophysicist and astronomer Gianluca Masi and his Virtual Telescope Project.
“I’m very happy and excited to announce that the Virtual Telescope Project will attempt to share, in real-time, images of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft 12 hours before it releases its precious Sample Return Capsule with samples of asteroid Bennu,” Masi said in an email to Space.com.
The livestream is about to start at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on Saturday (Sept. 23). Watch it live here at Space.com or on the Virtual Telescope Project’s website. (Bear in mind that weather conditions or other aspects could affect the project with the ability to observe OSIRIS-REx probe from the bottom.)
Live updates: OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return landing
Related: How NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will bring asteroid samples to Earth in 5 not-so-easy steps
OSIRIS-REx launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in September 2016 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, starting what can be a two-year voyage to the 1,720-foot (524 meter) wide asteroid 101955 Bennu. After reaching the asteroid in August 2018, the spacecraft spent one other two years observing Bennu’s surface.
When this survey was accomplished, the spacecraft got close enough to the surface of Bennu to get well material — and almost got swallowed up in the method. In 2021, with the Bennu samples stored in a sample return capsule, OSIRIS-REx fired up its propulsion system and commenced a 1.2 billion-mile (1.9 billion-kilometer) trip back home.
When it arrives this weekend, the spacecraft will jettison its sample return canister after which leave the vicinity of our planet again, heading out to a special asteroid. The canister should land on the surface of Earth within the western United States within the desert region across the U.S. military’s Utah Test and Training Range.
Asteroids like Bennu were formed around 4.5 billion years ago, across the time the solar system planets were being born from material leftover from planet formation. That signifies that studying asteroid material will help reveal the state and composition of matter across the infant sun within the early solar system.
For 2 years after the sample returns, from late 2023 until 2025, the sample will probably be cataloged and analyzed, in line with NASA. Not less than 75% of the Bennu sample will probably be preserved at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston for future research.
“OSIRIS-REx’s many accomplishments demonstrated the daring and modern way by which exploration unfolds in real-time,” Associate Administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters Thomas Zurbuchen said. “We have now a primordial piece of our solar system headed back to Earth where many generations of researchers can unlock its secrets.”
While this research is conducted with the Bennu, OSIRIS-REx will change names to OSIRIS-APEX and journey to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, settling into orbit across the 1200-foot (370 meter) wide space rock by 2029.