It has been seven years for the reason that launch of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to gather and return samples of asteroid Bennu, and the long wait for the spacecraft’s homecoming is sort of over.
OSIRIS-REx, short for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, on September 8, 2016. The journey to rendezvous with Bennu took the spacecraft two years to finish, which were followed by one other two years of scans while orbiting the asteroid.
The much-anticipated collection of fabric from Bennu’s surface didn’t occur until October 20, 2020, and it will be one other three years until the spacecraft made its way back to Earth. That point is now, and the asteroid-sand within the hourglass of OSIRIS-REx’s mission clock is sprinkling all the way down to zero. The mission’s asteroid sample return capsule is currently projected to land on Sunday (Sept. 24) at 8:55 a.m. MDT (10:55 a.m. EDT, 1455 GMT).
Related: Watch it live: OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid sample will come all the way down to Earth on Sept. 24.
Read more: How NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will bring asteroid samples to Earth in 5 not-so-easy steps
What time will OSIRIS-REx land?
NASA and the OSIRIS-REx mission team have the spent the past several years monitoring the spacecraft’s speed and trajectory, and have calculated its landing all the way down to the minute.
A Sept. 10 firing of OSIRIS-REx’s thrusters honed the course for its landing site on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), within the western Utah desert. The distant, 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area of land is bullseye for OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid sample return capsule.
After tracking the capsule along its journey through Earth’s atmosphere first using infrared cameras after which with radar stations on the bottom at UTTR, mission operators will have the option to pinpoint OSIRIS-REx’s landing coordinates to inside 30 feet (9 meters). The OSIRIS-REx return capsule is programed to deploy its most important parachute a couple of mile (1.6 kilometers) above the Utah desert. If the spacecraft and return capsule experience a nominal separation and landing sequence, the capsule is anticipated to land five minutes after deployment of its most important chute.
Slowing the return capsule and its stowed asteroid sample to only 11 miles-per-hour (17.7 kilometers-per-hour), the parachute is scheduled to softly touchdown OSRIS-REx at 8:55 a.m. MDT (10:55 a.m. EDT, 1455 GMT).
Once the world is verified protected, ground teams will collect the pod and transport it to a secure temporary cleanroom nearby, and eventual transportation to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, for evaluation and research.
Can I watch the OSIRIS-REx landing?
OSIRIS-REx’s widespread and distant landing area make catching a view of the return capsule difficult, but not unattainable. NASA is providing landing coverage starting at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT, 1400 GMT), Sunday, Sept. 24 which can be available to stream here, at Space.com.
The space agency can also be planning a Spanish-language version of the OSIRIS-REx landing, which can be available on the space agency’s social media accounts at X, formerly referred to as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Streaming of the landing is anticipated to last until the asteroid sample return capsule arrives on the on-site cleanroom facility.
NASA has also scheduled a post-landing press conference to happen following the sample canister’s arrival on the temporary cleanroom, which can even be streamed on the space agency’s website, starting at 5 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. MDT, 2100 GMT).
How long will the OSIRIS-REx landing take?
While live coverage of the landing doesn’t begin until 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT, 1400 GMT), OSIRIS-REx mission operators will begin their day much earlier. By 4 a.m. EDT or (2:00 a.m. MDT, 0800 GMT), the morning of Sept. 24, teams can be preparing to send final landing commands to the spacecraft, in response to OSIRIS-REx’s mission implementation systems engineer, Anjani Polit.
A “go/no-go” meeting can be held early Sunday to find out whether to proceed with the morning’s landing, and initiate the separation command for OSIRIS-REx to release the sample return capsule. Assuming a unanimous “go” polling from team operators, OSIRIS-REx will release its asteroid sample container at precisely 6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT, 1042 GMT). It’ll be a bit of over 4 hours between then and the capsule’s touchdown in Utah.
From there, the return pod, which does not include any kind of maneuver controls, can be on a ballistic trajectory for its landing at UTTR. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will proceed onward, soon after firing its thrusters to place the probe on track for a brand new goal, the asteroid Apophis. The OSIRIS-REx mission will then change names to OSIRIS-APEX, short for OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer, and the surveyor will begin a six-year journey to Apophis, where it’s going to remain in orbit for as much as 18 months.
As for the OSIRIS-REx return capsule, NASA engineers have calculated every second of its return trajectory following spacecraft separation. A minute-by-minute schedule is listed below, including atmospheric reentry times and speeds, in addition to drogue and most important parachute deployments.
TIME | SEQUENCE |
---|---|
6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT, 1042 GMT) | OSIRIS-REx releases the asteroid sample container return capsule. |
7:02 a.m. EDT (5:02 a.m. MDT, 1102 GMT) | OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fires thrusters to set course away from Earth, and toward asteroid Apophis. |
10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT, 1442 GMT) | OSIRIS-REx return capsule enters Earth atmosphere at an altitude of 82 miles (132 kilometers), traveling 27,650 mph (44,498 kph). |
10:43 a.m. EDT (8:43 a.m. MDT, 1443 GMT) | OSIRIS-REx return capsule experiences highest temperatures, reaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). |
10:44 a.m. EDT (8:44 a.m. MDT, 1444 GMT) | Deployment of the return capsule’s drogue parachute, at 102,300 feet (31,181 meters) in altitude. |
10:45 a.m. EDT (8:45 a.m. MDT, 1445 GMT) | OSIRIS-REx spacecraft makes its closest approach to Earth, passing just 484 miles (779 kilometers) away. |
10:50 a.m. EDT (8:50 a.m. MDT, 1450 GMT) | Deployment of the return capsule’s most important parachute, at 5,050 feet (1,539 meters) in altitude. |
10:55 a.m. EDT (8:55 a.m. MDT, 1455 GMT) | Touchdown on Earth of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return capsule, carrying material from the surface of Bennu. |
What if the OSIRIS-REx landing is unsuccessful?
Within the event that Sunday morning’s go/no-go meeting ends in a “no-go,” it won’t mean the tip of the world for OSIRIS-REx. Should a complication arise with the spacecraft’s systems or the readiness status of of mission teams on the bottom, the OSIRIS-REx team has a backup plan for landing NASA’s asteroid samples.
Should the choice to not separate the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from its sample pod develop into needed, one other opportunity to land exists two years from now. “We actually don’t need to do this,” Polit told Space.com through the Sept. 15 episode of the This Week in Space podcast. “The spacecraft can be going closer to the sun than we would like during that two-year time period,” she said, alluding to the deleterious effects increased and prolonged exposure to the sun’s radiation could have on the asteroid sample. “It’s higher to get it on the bottom moderately than having it sit in space and get heated up over the following two years.”