For those of you interested in planetary science, we are very excited that the much anticipated landing of OSIRIS-REx mission will happen early on Sunday morning!
The OSIRIS-REx mission departed earth on September 8, 2016 and made its way to an asteroid called Bennu, where it sampled an estimated 250g of rocks and dust from the surface in October 2020. After a period of observation, the spacecraft began its trip back to Earth with the samples in tow.
Earth entry will begin at 7:42 am PDT (local time) over the coast of Northern California, with a touchdown time of 7:55 am PDT in the Utah desert.
Coverage of the event will begin at 7am PDT on NASA TV, and online at https://www.nasa.gov/live
If you’d like to learn more about the mission, or you’re simply looking for pretty pictures and resources, check out the mission website at https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
Fingers crossed that the entry goes smoothly, and if all goes well our participating scientist group (PI. Dominguez) looks forward to sample allocations and analyzing some of the samples with both the NanoSIMS and the SHRIMP-RG here at Stanford!
VIDEO LINK: To Bennu and Back: Journey’s End
Christie Jilly 