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Successful second deep space maneuver for OSIRIS-REx confirmed by Staff Writers Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 04, 2018
New tracking data confirms that NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully completed its second Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-2) on June 28. The thruster burn put the spacecraft on course for a series of asteroid approach maneuvers to be executed this fall that will culminate with the spacecraft's scheduled arrival at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3. The DSM-2 burn, which employed the spacecraft's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thruster set, resulted in a 37 miles per hour (16.7 meters per second) change in the vehicle's velocity and consumed 28.2 pounds (12.8 kilograms) of fuel. Tracking data from the Deep Space Network provided preliminary confirmation of the burn's execution, and the subsequent downlink of telemetry from the spacecraft shows that all subsystems performed as expected. DSM-2 was OSIRIS-REx's last deep space maneuver of its outbound cruise to Bennu. The next engine burn, Asteroid Approach Maneuver 1 (AAM-1), is scheduled for early October. AAM-1 is a major braking maneuver designed to slow the spacecraft's speed from approximately 1,130 to 320 miles per hour (506.2 to 144.4 meters per second) relative to Bennu and is the first of four asteroid approach maneuvers scheduled for this fall. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission's observation planning and processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing spacecraft flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the agency's New Frontiers Program for its Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
New Mystery Discovered Regarding Active Asteroid Phaethon Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 02, 2018 Based on a new study of how near-Earth asteroid Phaethon reflects light at different angles, astronomers think that its surface may reflect less light than previously thought. This is an exciting mystery for the recently approved DESTINY+ mission to investigate when it flies past Phaethon. The way an object reflects light depends not only on its albedo (the percentage of light it reflects) but also on the illumination angle. One particular effect that scientists are interested in is how the polari ... read more
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