Saying goodbye to an asteroid

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This is a short piece I wrote for Lockheed Martin that was posted on our employee intranet and to our external-facing website.

Bye Bye Bennu: OSIRIS-REx Bids Farewell to Its Asteroid Companion

It’s been real, asteroid Bennu.

After two years of orbiting the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx has officially left the premises and is now homebound with an important package in tow.

The small but might spacecraft brings with it an estimated 60+ grams of regolith – about the size of a candy bar – that might just unlock the secrets of how our solar system formed, and potentially even the origins of life.

After its two-year, 1.4-billion-mile return cruise that includes two revolutions around the sun, OSIRIS-REx will catch up with Earth in its orbit and jettison its sample return capsule.

“It’s both exciting and bittersweet, in a way,” said Sandy Freund, mission operations program manager for Lockheed Martin’s Mission Support Area, where OSIRIS-REx is flown. “I can’t wait to see what we learn from the sample when it returns to Earth; but at the same time, we’ve said goodbye to this asteroid we’ve gotten to know so well over the past couple of years.”

A Glimpse into the Origins of Earth

Bennu has been of keen interest for scientists because it is believed to be a well-preserved remnant from the beginnings of our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. It could contain clues about whether asteroids helped deliver ingredients for life on Earth and could also give us a glimpse into specific natural resources asteroids possess.

Once Bennu’s sample lands in the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023, it will be curated at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston and shared with teams around the globe. With upcoming scientists and engineers in mind, 75 percent of the sample will be reserved for future generations to study.

Today’s departure maneuver also marked the mission’s longest engine burn since arrival at Bennu in 2018. OSIRIS-REx’s main engines fired for seven minutes, changing its velocity by 0.16 miles per second – about the cruising speed of a commercial airliner – and sending it on a trajectory to meet up with Earth in 2.5 years.

OSIRIS-REx is the first NASA mission to collect material from an asteroid, and it will bring back the largest sample collected by a NASA mission since Apollo. It’s NASA's third robotic sample return mission, and Lockheed Martin has built and operated all three of those spacecraft.