NASA's OSIRIS-REx begins asteroid operations campaign
Friday, August 24, 2018 - 14:30
in Astronomy & Space
After an almost two-year journey, NASA's asteroid sampling spacecraft, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), caught its first glimpse of asteroid Bennu last week and began the final approach toward its target. Kicking off the mission's asteroid operations campaign on Aug. 17, the spacecraft's PolyCam camera obtained the image from a distance of 1.3 million miles (2.1 million km).