The US spacecraft OSIRIS-REx has likely managed to collect material from a space rock nearly 333 million kilometers from Earth. The American space agency NASA reported this in a live broadcast around the project. The mission to collect the material went ‘as planned’.
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The OSIRIS-REx made contact with the potato-shaped asteroid Bennu in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (Belgian time). The space probe started the descent to a few meters above the space rock as planned and with a vacuum cleaner hose, it landed on Bennu for a few seconds to collect rocks and dust. After that, the spacecraft moved away from the asteroid again.
“Touchdown confirmed,” NASA reported around 12 a.m. The actual landing took place 18.5 minutes earlier, but it took that long for the returned signal to reach NASA’s command center.
Saturday at the earliest certainty
It will not become clear until Saturday at the earliest whether the operation was actually successful and how much material was collected. Also, the probe cannot transmit a confirmation or a photo until it has returned to orbit around the asteroid and recharged its batteries.
The probe works completely independently, the distance to the earth is so great that the flight control cannot intervene. The scientists behind the mission hope they can retrieve at least 60 grams. When the space probe is ready, it will fly away. He must land on Earth in 2023. The mission costs about $ 1 billion.
If Wednesday morning’s attempt failed, it could be decided to try again in January.
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