Just before 10:54 a.m. EDT/7:54 a.m. PDT on Sunday, September 24. is when to switch on NASA TV on YouTube to watch the culmination of a daring seven year mission to sample an asteroid.
Precious samples of near-Earth asteroid Bennu will be dropped from the sky into the Utah desert to be collected by NASA and sent around the world. The leftovers of the beginning of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, asteroids like Bennu are thought to contain clues about planet formation as well as, perhaps, the molecular precursors to life.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission left Earth in 2016, scraped a sample from Bennu in 2020 and has been on a journey home ever since. It’s thought that the capsule contains 8.8 ounces +/- 3.6 ounces (250 grams +/- 101 grams).
When And Where To Watch A Live Stream
Live coverage of the capsule’s descent will begin at at 10:00 a.m. EDT/8:00 a.m. MDT/7:00 a.m. PDT on Sunday, September 24. Coverage will air on NASA Television, NASA TV on YouTube, the NASA app and the NASA website.
NASA will stream coverage of the landing beginning at the same times in Spanish on X, Facebook, and YouTube.
The capsule will enter Earth’s atmosphere at 7:42 a.m. (PT) and land 13 minutes later within a 37-mile by 9-mile (59 km by 15 km) ellipse.
A post-landing news conference is planned for about 5:00 p.m. EDT, which you can watch on NASA TV, the NASA app and the agency’s website.
If there are technical problems on Sept. 24. and the spacecraft can’t release the capsule to safely land on Earth then there’s a backup opportunity in 2025.
What Will Happen After The Landing
The OSIRIS-REx team has undergone extensive training and rehearsals for this final part of the mission, the most recent an end-to-end capsule retrieval exercise on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground.
Once it’s landed and packed-up for safe travel it will be flown by helicopter to a temporary clean room. Crews will also collect soil and air samples all around the landing capsule so that the researchers can identify any tiny contaminants found later in the asteroid sample.
“Once the sample capsule touches down, our team will be racing against the clock to recover it and get it to the safety of a temporary clean room,” said Mike Moreau, deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. in a press release.
The space agency will host a post-landing briefing about 90 minutes after the sample capsule arrives. This will also be livestreamed.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Read the full article here
