Success! NASA makes contact with asteroid Bennu | Abroad

The OSIRIS-REx made contact with the potato-shaped asteroid Bennu at the beginning of the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (Dutch 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”, reported Nasa at around 00.12 (Dutch time). The actual landing took place 18.5 minutes earlier, but it took that long for the returned signal to reach NASA’s command center.

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.

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