OSIRIS-REx touches Bennu, October 20, 2020
Data as of 2026-10-23
The instant
- Instant (UTC)
- October 20, 2020, 21:50:11 UTC
- Distance from the centre of Bennu
- 0.224 km
- At rest for
- 6 s
For 6 s from this second, the distance between OSIRIS-REx and the centre of Bennu no longer changes: the trajectory holds the spacecraft on the body, carried along by its rotation. Then the spacecraft moves away again.
Its speed meanwhile, 5 cm/s, is that of a point of the surface: at this distance, with the rotation period Galaxy displays for Bennu, a point on the equator moves at 9 cm/s, and a point at higher latitude more slowly.
In Galaxy
Open OSIRIS-REx at this instant, at true scale
Pages of the spacecraft and of the body:
How it is measured
The position and velocity of the spacecraft relative to the body are read from Horizons every minute around its closest approach, then every second. The contact is the first run of at least three seconds during which the spacecraft neither approaches the centre of the body nor recedes from it by more than 2 mm/s.
Source
NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics, Horizons System. Read on October 23, 2026.
Trajectory solution cited by Horizons: ORX_merged