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Illustration: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona (Fair Use)
Yesterday, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft passed by the asteroid Bennu for the last time, ending its two-and-a-half-year relationship with the space rock. But OSIRIS-REx is still lingering in the asteroid’s vicinity, as if hesitant to embark on its roughly 200-million-mile return to Earth. That trip will begin in early May.
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OSIRIS-REx is carrying precious samples from the asteroid and should arrive back on Earth on September 24, 2023.
Asteroid Bennu.
Illustration: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
“Leaving Bennu’s vicinity in May puts us in the ‘sweet spot,’ when the departure maneuver will consume the least amount of the spacecraft’s onboard fuel,” said Michael Moreau, a deputy project manager for the OSIRIS-REx mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in a statement. Moreau added that it the largest propulsive maneuver the spacecraft engaged in since first approaching Bennu in Octo