OSIRIS-REx

[Guy Wells]

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

OSIRIS-REx is on its way to the Near Earth asteroid Bennu, where it will arrive in 2018. To get there, the spacecraft needs to do a gravity assist maneuver. Today, September 22nd, OSIRIS-REx will fly by the Earth. Here it is, 16 hours before closest approach, at a distance of 386,000 km (about the distance from the Earth to the Moon). It was about 17 mag at that time.

https://www.asteroidmission.org/