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OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security - Apophis Explorer)

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    NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX Spacecraft Slingshots Past Earth

    Earth fills most of the image, a moody blue globe mostly covered with tiny blueish white clouds like carpet pile or sheep’s wool. In the foreground, the instrument panel is dark enough to be nearly in silhouette, like a city skyline. A tall thin rectangle juts up from the left side of the panel, like a tall building, which is part of the SamCam. In the center, a shorter, squatter polygon shape is the OLA instrument. A slightly lighter colored Y shape lays on its side in front of the OLA.

    At 1:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 23, NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Apophis Explorer) spacecraft flew within 2,136 miles (3,438 kilometers) of Earth. During approach and as OSIRIS-APEX passed Earth, it looked home, capturing images and data of our home planet to help calibrate its science instruments. During the […]

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