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[music throughout] A historic moment is on the horizon for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission

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On October 20, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will journey to asteroid Bennu’s 

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Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface and briefly touchdown to gather a sample –

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something NASA has never done before.

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Right now, you are watching OSIRIS-REx preparing for its descent 

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to sample site Nightingale, a dark crater near Bennu’s north pole, that you can see below you now.

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Site Nightingale is one of the only areas on Bennu that holds

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enough fine-grained material for the spacecraft to safely access.

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The crater is only 66 ft (20 meters) in diameter, or about the size of a tennis court

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The Nightingale site itself is only 26 ft (8 m) wide, nearly the width of 3 parking spaces.

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From orbit departure, to the steep descent, to the back-away burn, 

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the spacecraft will perform the entire sample collection sequence autonomously.

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To safely touch the site, the spacecraft has to position itself for the Touch-And-Go sample collection maneuver.

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OSIRIS-REx will first stretch out its sampling arm from the folded, parked position.  

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Then, it will slowly move its solar panels into the “Y-wing” configuration – as you see right now. 

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Placing the solar panels up and away from the asteroid’s surface during touchdown. 

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This configuration also places the spacecraft’s center of gravity directly over the TAGSAM collector head, 

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which is the only part of the spacecraft that will contact Bennu’s surface during the sample collection event.

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As OSIRIS-REx descends to Nightingale, it will approach the site and fly over building-sized boulders scattered around the crater’s rim. 

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The tallest one you see is about the same height as a three-story building. 

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The spacecraft will spend approximately 22 minutes deeply descending to the rocky surface… 

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While OSIRIS-REx descends, take a look around sample site Nightingale. 

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Remember, OSIRIS-REx is aiming to tag a spot no larger than a few parking spaces. 

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In between these boulders are small patches of relatively clear surface – 

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enough to allow OSIRIS-REx to collect at least 60 grams of pristine asteroid sample.

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With just meters to go, OSIRIS-REx is now ready to collect a sample. 

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Once the sample collector head senses contact with Bennu’s surface, it will fire a small puff of compressed nitrogen 

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to kick up debris and capture pieces of the asteroid into the collector head – an event that lasts just a few seconds.

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OSIRIS-REx will then fire its thrusters to slowly back-away from the surface and navigate to a safe distance away from Bennu.

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A couple days later, the spacecraft will image the inside of the sample collector head to verify that material was collected.

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The sample will be delivered to Earth in September 2023.