Flat and relatively barren, the military variety covers about 1.5 million largely uninhabited acres of the Great Salt Lake desert, with much of the air space above closed to non-training-range airplane, making it an ideal landing place. (NASAs Stardust objective landed a sample pill of particles from comet Wild 2 on the Utah variety in 2006.).
OSIRIS-REx is NASAs very first asteroid sample return mission. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
Preliminary Decisions and Preparations.
About an hour prior to the release, during an essential team instruction, operators okayed for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to launch its sample capsule. The agreement from the lead engineers and military workers was unanimous. They carefully evaluated a list of necessary criteria:.
Would the capsule land in its designated target location? The answer was affirmative.
Were the most recent forecasts for peak heat and deceleration levels that the spacecraft would face in line with expectations? Once again, the action was favorable.
Was the spacecraft primed to dispatch the pill and subsequently divert itself from Earth? Yes.
Was the whole group geared up for the days activities? They were.
Was the landing range validated clear? It was.
This illustration depicts NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft simply after releasing the sample capsule toward Earth. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Doppler information shows that NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released its sample capsule toward Earth at 6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT), as planned, from 63,000 miles of Earths surface area– about one-third the range from Earth to the Moon.
After traveling for about 4 hours through space, the pill will enter the environment off the coast of California at about 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT) and head east. It will land about 13 minutes later on in a predetermined 36-mile by 8.5-mile area on the Department of Defenses Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.
OSIRIS-REx is NASAs very first asteroid sample return objective. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
About an hour prior to the release, during a vital team briefing, operators provided the green light for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to release its sample pill. NASAs Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) is the first U.S. objective to return samples from an asteroid to Earth. Credit: NASA.
Subsequently, engineers at Lockheed Martins Mission Support Area in Denver sent the important release commands to the OSIRIS-REx. This action set the stage for the spacecraft to release the capsule at approximately 6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT).
NASAs Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) is the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth. Credit: NASA.
NASAs live protection of the OSIRIS-REx capsule landing begins at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT) on Sunday, September 24, and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the firms site.
