NASA published a video made by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. It demonstrates the moment of separation of the capsule with samples of the substance of the asteroid Bennu.
The separation of the capsule occurred on September 24, when OSIRIS-REx was at a distance of 102 thousand km from Earth. This moment was captured by one of the black-and-white navigation cameras of the spacecraft, normally used for its orientation.
An animation published by NASA demonstrates the moment of undocking the capsule from OSIRIS-REx. The Sun is visible in the upper part of the frame, and a thin crescent of Earth is visible at the left edge of the picture. The sequence of images was processed to remove most of the scattered sunlight, obtain more detailed images of the capsule and the cloud of particles formed at the time of its ejection, and prevent light saturation of the Earth’s crescent.
Less than 6 hours after undocking, the capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere and landed at a land site in Utah. Currently, it is located in a laboratory specially built to study its contents, located on the territory of the Johnson Space Center. Scientists have already opened the capsule. On October 11, NASA plans to organize a live broadcast, during which it will show the world the contents delivered by OSIRIS-REx.
As for the spacecraft, it continued its journey through the Solar System after the capsule was undocked. The aim of its expanded mission will be the asteroid Apophis. OSIRIS-REx will reach it in April 2029.
According to https://blogs.nasa.gov
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