Tag: Asteroids
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ULA wins contract to launch NASA’s Lucy mission to visit unexplored asteroids
File photo of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5-401 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: United Launch Alliance NASA has selected United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket to dispatch the Lucy spacecraft on a mission from Cape Canaveral in October 2021 to fly by seven unexplored asteroids, including six objects locked in orbits leading…
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OSIRIS-REx finds rugged terrain on asteroid Bennu
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s navigation camera captured this image of asteroid Bennu on Jan. 17 from a distance of approximately 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). The large boulder in partial shadow at the lower right of the frame is about 165 feet (50 meters) across. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin Some time next year, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft…
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OSIRIS-REx finds rugged terrain on asteroid Bennu
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s navigation camera captured this image of asteroid Bennu on Jan. 17 from a distance of approximately 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). The large boulder in partial shadow at the lower right of the frame is about 165 feet (50 meters) across. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin Some time next year, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft…
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Bradford Space Group buys Deep Space Industries, shifting focus from asteroid mining to propulsion
An artist’s conception shows a nanosatellite equipped with Deep Space Industries’ non-toxic, water-based Comet thruster system. (DSI / BSI Illustration) Bradford Space Group says it’s acquired California-based Deep Space Industries, which means that both of the ventures that were created to mine asteroids have now been bought up to focus on different priorities. The other…
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OSIRIS-REx probe goes into close orbit around asteroid Bennu and sets a record
An artist’s conception shows the OSIRIS-REx probe circling in to enter a close-in orbit around asteroid Bennu. (Univ. of Arizona / NASA Graphic) NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft today maneuvered into an orbit that takes it within 4,000 feet of the surface of Bennu, a diamond-shaped asteroid that’s 70 million miles from Earth. The orbit sets a…
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OSIRIS-REx completes New Year’s Eve orbit insertion burn at asteroid
This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 kilometers). Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona After four weeks of navigating in the vicinity of asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters for eight seconds Monday to slip into…
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That was fast: OSIRIS-REx probe detects water on asteroid Bennu during approach
This mosaic image of the asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles. A prominent boulder can be seen at lower right. (NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona Photo) Just one week after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s official arrival at the…
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OSIRIS-REx probe reaches asteroid Bennu for close-up survey and sample return
An image taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe last month shows the asteroid Bennu from a distance of about 40 miles. (NASA / Goddard / Univ. of Arizona Photo) NASA’s OSIRIS-REx today made its official rendezvous with a promising and potentially perilous asteroid named Bennu, after two years of closing in on it. “We have arrived,”…
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See a diamond-shaped asteroid from all sides, courtesy of OSIRIS-REx mission
Two years after its launch, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is closing in on a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and sending back pictures that provide one gem of a 360-degree view. Last Friday, OSIRIS-REx captured imagery over the course of a four-hour, 11-minute period to take in a full rotation of the diamond-shaped space rock from a…
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NASA’s Dawn spacecraft runs out of fuel in the asteroid belt
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ran out of fuel Wednesday and stopped transmitting to Earth, ending an 11-year mission that explored the two largest objects in the asteroid belt and set several records in the annals of space history. Dawn failed to contact controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California during an overnight communications opportunity late…