OSIRIS-Rex Sample Return Prelanding, Sept. 22 2023

To successfully deliver a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, spacecraft operators need to ensure OSIRIS-REx travels at the right speed and direction to release the sample capsule into the atmosphere, landing it on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range.

Mission leadership will discuss the results of the spacecraft’s final trajectory maneuvers, and expectations for the capsule’s entry, descent, and landing, and plans for recovery operations in Utah’s western desert.

Participants include:
• Lori Glaze, director, Planetary Sciences Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
• Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx program manager, Lockheed Martin
• Nicole Lunning, OSIRIS-REx curation lead, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston
• Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona