NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters to adjust its trajectory to refine its sample capsule's landing location on Earth, set for September 24, targeting the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range. On September 17, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx engineers slightly shifted the spacecraft’s
On September 17, NASA adjusted the trajectory of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to fine-tune the landing site for its sample capsule due to return to Earth on September 24. This modification, a shift of nearly 8 miles eastward, ensures the capsule’s descent into its designated landing zone in the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range.
This final correction maneuver moved the sample capsule’s predicted landing location east by nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, to the center of its predetermined landing zone inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile area on the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range. The spacecraft is currently about 1.8 million miles, or 2.8 million kilometers, away, traveling at about 14,000 mph toward Earth.
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