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A team led by NASA in Utah\u2019s West Desert is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of the first U.S. asteroid sample slated to land on Earth in September. A mockup of NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security\u2013Regolith Explorer) sample capsule was dropped Wednesday from an aircraft and landed at the drop zone at the Department of Defense\u2019s Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n
This was part of the mission\u2019s final major test prior to the arrival of the actual capsule on Sept. 24 with its sample of asteroid Bennu, collected in space almost three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now mere weeks away from receiving a piece of solar system history on Earth, and this successful drop test ensures we\u2019re ready,\u201d said Nicola Fox<\/strong>, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. \u201cPristine material from asteroid Bennu will help shed light on the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, and perhaps even on how life on Earth began.\u201d<\/p>\n This drop test follows a series of earlier rehearsals \u2013 capsule recovery, spacecraft engineering operations, and sample curation procedures \u2013 conducted earlier this spring and summer. Now, with less than four weeks until the spacecraft\u2019s arrival, the OSIRIS-REx team is nearing the end of rehearsals and ready for the actual delivery.<\/p>\n “I am immensely proud of the efforts our team has poured into this endeavor,\u201d said Dante Lauretta<\/strong>, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. \u201cJust as our meticulous planning and rehearsal prepared us to collect a sample from Bennu, we have honed our skills for sample recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n The capsule is carrying an estimated 8.8 ounces of rocky material collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in 2020. Researchers will study the sample in the coming years to learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.<\/p>\n The capsule will enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT) on Sept 24, traveling about 27,650 mph. NASA\u2019s live coverage of the capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT), and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey, and it feels very much like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of emotions like pride and joy coexisting with a determined focus to complete the race well,\u201d said Rich Burns<\/strong>, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.<\/p>\n Once located and packaged for travel, the capsule will be flown to a temporary clean room on the military range, where it will undergo initial processing and disassembly in preparation for its journey by aircraft to NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the sample will be documented, cared for, and distributed for analysis to scientists worldwide.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. <\/p>\n Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrives on Earth, will take place at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. <\/p>\n International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA\u2019s (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/na_3_638291428465346809.jpg\")
A training model of the sample return capsule is seen is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n