A few days ago, the team behind #NASA #OSIRIS-REx mission did recovery rehearsal of the sample capsule that should land Sept 24 in the Utah Desert

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/

#NEWs

Yesterday the #NASA #OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters to point itself toward Earth, putting it on course to release its sample return capsule from 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface on Sept. 24

ALIEN CRAFT SPOTTED ON COLLISION COURSE WITH EARTH

actually it is #NASA #OSIRIS -REx returning a sample from Asteroid #Bennu

Spotted on 16th September by #ESA’s Optical Ground Station (OGS) telescope in Tenerife, OSIRIS-REx was 4.66 million km from Earth sample will arrive on Sept. 24th

#NASA #OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe now only 520,000 km away from earth.

Sample release at 4:42am MDT
Divert maneuver at 5:02am MDT
Sample entry at 8:42am MDT over Utah

all happening tomorrow.

#OSIRIS-REx

Coming in ... er ... cold with a special delivery

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_osiris_rex

we get signal
What? Main screen turn on
Its you!

#OSIRIS-Rex

#VirtualTelescope spotted #OSIRIS-REx 324,000 km from earth

amazing effort for this shot

Craft with sample of #Bennu is less than 200k from earth. only 6 hours away from earth entry

#OSIRIS-REx delivers the US's first pristine asteroid sample after a 3.86 billion-mile journey. Watch landing live from DOD Utah Test & Training Range

https://www.youtube.com/live/21X5lGlDOfg?feature=shared

amazing work. Sample separation from #OSIRIS-REx was detected and confirmed

Daniel Parrott at Siding Spring observatory, Australia managed to observe the separation of the sample return capsule from #OSIRIS-REX:

landing ETA in 20 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjoWdUX8jHY

infrared tracking #OSIRIS-Rex from ground!

ENTRY IS NOW

SO EXCITED

#OSIRIS-Rex

CHUTES DEPLOYED at 5000 feet *happy sigh*

Welcome to earth #Bennu

\o/

Recovery Helicopters have sighted #OSIRIS-REx SRC

TOUCHDOWN!

#OSIRIS-REx SRC

The #OSIRIS-REx main spacecraft, now renamed #OSIRIS-APEX #OSIRISAPEX, is passing through the perigee of its hyperbola and heading back out towards solar orbit to visit asteroid #Apophis

#OSIRIS-REX #SRC Confirmed sighting. Stabe-1 Perfect landing

9except for the drogue chute maybe not deploying

#OSIRIS-REx #SRC

Nominal conditions. Samples intact