It's confirmed: NASA's OSIRIS-REx successfully executes first deep space maneuver

New Delhi: NASA confirmed that its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully completed its first Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-1) on December 28, 2016.

As per NASA, the engine burn sets up the spacecraft for an Earth gravity assist this fall as it continues its two-year journey to the asteroid Bennu.

“The large maneuver was the first using OSIRIS-REx’s main engines and resulted in a 964 miles per hour (431 meters per second) change in the vehicle’s velocity utilizing 780 pounds (354 kilograms) of fuel,” NASA added.

Tracking data from the Deep Space Network (DSN) confirmed the successful maneuver, and subsequent downlink of high-rate telemetry from the spacecraft shows that all subsystems performed as expected.

"DSM-1 was our first major trajectory change and first use of the main engines, so it’s good to have that under our belts and be on a safe trajectory to Bennu," said Arlin Bartels, deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The successful execution of the first DSM puts the spacecraft on course for an Earth flyby in September 2017, during which Earth's gravity will bend the OSIRIS-REx trajectory and slinging it toward a rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in the fall of 2018.

NASA added a smaller trajectory correction maneuver will be executed on Wednesday, January 18 to refine the course for the Earth flyby.

Launched on 8 September 2016, the OSIRIS-REx will travel to 101955 Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, and bring a small sample back to Earth for study. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will reach Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023 for detailed analysis.