“Early Monday afternoon, a NASA probe that’s spent the last two years flying alone through space will finally reach its destination – a near-Earth asteroid that could hold clues on the origins of our solar system, and life itself.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is set for its long-awaited rendezvous with the space rock ‘Bennu’ between 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. ET on Dec 3, when NASA will air a live event kicking off its first asteroid sample return mission.

Just last week, Osiris-Rex flexed its mechanical arm through a full range of motion for the first time in space ahead of reaching Bennu; eventually, this instrument will be used to pluck a sample of loose dirt and rock from the surface to bring back home.

The craft has now travelled more than a billion miles since launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in September 2016.

https://dailym.ai/2QrdYx5

Very cool. Now a couple of months to find the best landing site and then the material retrieval and return.

It seems to have arrived. Live coverage link here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...iris-rex-target.html

Maybe not. NASA seems to have switched live coverage to a different event.

I went to a presentation on Saturday night given by the principle investigator

it was pretty cool - they had a rotating 3D image of the asteroid that was taken late last month

the surface texture was amazing