NASA's OSIRIS-REx has completed its final rehearsal of all maneuvers required by the spacecraft for its planned touchdown on the asteroid Bennu in October. It will then collect a sample from the asteroid and bring it back to the Earth, which is the first time a NASA to do so.
According to CNN, Bennu will pass close to Earth at 179 million miles from Earth, closer than the moon. It will be unlikely to hit the planet, but scientists hope to get essential data to know the best ways to repel near-Earth asteroids. Moreover, this mission will also look into how these space objects impact the Earth and how planets are formed.
"Now that we've completed this milestone, we are confident in finalizing the procedures for the TAG event. This rehearsal confirmed that the team and all of the spacecraft's systems are ready to collect a sample in October," OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta said in a statement.
Lauretta is a University of Arizona planetary science and cosmochemistry professor.
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Written by CJ Robles
