CNET News reports that a pickpocketed piece “of a big asteroid named Bennu is on its way back to Earth.” NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is “winding down its mission more than seven years after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida.” In 2020, the van-size spacecraft performed a “touch-and-go” maneuver and “swiped a few ounces of material from the space rock, which is really a pile of rubble held together by its own gravity.” OSIRIS-REx “lingered around Bennu until 2021, when it started its two-year journey back to Earth.” The long flight “ends on Sept. 24, when the spacecraft will jettison the capsule containing the sample.” The capsule will then “make a superheated trip through the atmosphere before parachuting in for a soft landing at the US military’s Utah Test and Training Range near Dugway, Utah.”
Full Story (CNET News)
Tag: To Earth
Astra’s NASA Mission Fails With Loss of Satellites
Reuters reported that Astra Space’s mission to send “tiny storm-monitoring NASA satellites to orbit” failed after a second-stage booster engine shut down 10 minutes after liftoff. The rocket was carrying two satellites designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory to “measure moisture and precipitation in tropical storm systems,” which were set to be the first batch of a six-satellite constellation managed by NASA. NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted that the mission “offered a great opportunity for new science and launch capabilities.”
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Astra rocket launches on mission to deliver NASA TROPICS satellites
(VideoFromSpace via YouTube)
Starliner Closes Hatch; Astronauts Prepare Test Vehicle for Return to Earth Wednesday
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that The Boeing Company’s Starliner successfully docked with the ISS on Friday, and its hatch opened on Saturday. “Since then the crew has removed 500 pounds of cargo sent up, and then loaded it up again with 600 more pounds for the return to Earth. That includes three Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System tanks, essential for supplying breathable air on station. They will be refurbished planetside for a future return to the station.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel – subscription publication);
More Info (SciTech Daily)
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Boeing Starliner’s Hatch Closes in Preparation for Undocking from ISS
(Boeing via YouTube)
Starliner Returns to White Sands Missile Range
The Washington Post reports that the Boeing Company’s Starliner capsule undocked from the International Space Station Wednesday and successfully returned to Earth, completing a six-day mission. The uncrewed capsule “touched down as scheduled at 6:49 p.m. Eastern time at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico under a trio of parachutes.” Starliner’s return marked the final step of a vital test for Boeing and NASA, “which required the aerospace company to prove it could safely fly the vehicle to the station and back autonomously before allowing it to fly astronauts.”
Full Story (Washington Post)
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Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test-2 Landing (Boeing via YouTube)
Four Astronauts Returning from ISS on SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule
CNN reports, “Three NASA astronauts and a European astronaut are returning home from the International Space Station, capping off their six-month mission during which they worked alongside Russian cosmonauts and hosted the first all-private crew to visit the orbiting outpost.” CNN reports the astronauts “climbed aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after midnight and detached from the space station in the early hours of Thursday morning,” and will “spend all day Thursday free flying through orbit as their spacecraft maneuvers closer to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.” The capsule “will streak back into the atmosphere while traveling at more than 22 times the speed of sound” and then “deploy parachutes and float to a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida.”
Full Story (CNN)
NASA’s Stuck Astronauts Are Finally On Their Way Back to Earth After 9 Months in Space
AP News reports, “NASA’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts. The capsule undocked in the wee hours and aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast by early evening, weather permitting.”
Full Story (AP News)