By 
August 17th, 2023
Image credit:
U.S. Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service is issuing a “Forever stamp” to commemorate NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and the samples of the asteroid Bennu, to be parachuted to Earth in September 2023.
This new 20-stamp pane shows the capsule containing the sample parachuting into the Utah Test and Training Range, a U.S. Department of Defense facility in the desert.
A depiction of Bennu’s surface appears at the bottom of the pane’s selvage with outer space above — deep blue and dappled with celestial bodies.
Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide and contains hydrated minerals, according to scientists working on the NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mission.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Sample pluck
NASA lofted OSIRIS-REx from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 8, 2016. The spacecraft arrived at the asteroid in December 2018, photographing, mapping and assessing space rock Bennu’s surface to determine the best spot from which to pluck samples.
In October 2020, the spacecraft slowly descended toward the asteroid’s surface with an extended robotic arm.
A novel collection device at the hand-end of the arm released a puff of nitrogen gas that sent up a cloud of dust and rocks from Bennu’s surface.
Ready and waiting. Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona holds a mock up of the asteroid collection device.
Image credit: Barbara David
It is believed that more than 2 ounces of these materials were captured in a special container in the collection device, which then closed and retracted into the spacecraft.
Forever stamp ceremony
On May 10, 2021, OSIRIS-REx began its flight back toward Earth.
Its container of asteroid dust and rocks, enclosed in a special capsule, will parachute to the Utah desert on Sept. 24, 2023.
Utah drop zone landscape.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
As for the commemorative stamp and pane, it sports an illustration of Alan Dingman, based on images supplied by NASA.
Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp and pane.
The OSIRIS-REx stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce rate.
A First Day of Issue Dedication Ceremony for the stamp is to be held September 22, with the public invited. This event is to be held at Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Posted in Space News
