OSIRIS-REx has taken its first images of Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles.

The images are not much to look at, showing a mere dot moving across a star field. Nonetheless, they show that the spacecraft’s camera is working, and that it is on course for its December 3rd arrival.

OSIRIS-REx, on its way to a December rendezvous with the potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu, successfully made its second course correction last week.

Rendezvous is scheduled for December 3rd. The probed will orbit the asteroid for about six months, then dive in to get a sample in July 2020, returning it to Earth in 2023.

NASA has released the images that OSIRIS-REx took as it flew past Earth last week on its way to its 2018 rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu.

The image shows the Pacific Ocean from Australia to California. Its main significance it demonstrates that the spacecraft’s camera and pointing system is working perfectly.

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe flew past Earth today as part of its flight plan to slingshot to the asteroid Bennu.

I expect images of the fly-by to be released shortly.

OSIRIS-Rex’s instruments have been successfully turned on and are all operating perfectly.

In what might be a first for the planetary science/engineering community, an unmanned probe, being built to bring samples back from the asteroid Bennu, is turning out to be lighter than expected, thus allowing engineers to stuff its tanks with extra fuel to extend its mission.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, being built at a Lockheed Martin facility in Denver, is coming in lighter than the lift capability of the Atlas 5 rocket, which will lift off in its “411” configuration with a four-meter payload fairing, a single-engine Centaur upper stage, and one strap-on solid rocket booster.

The proposal — described as a “heavy launch option” — would add an extra 341 pounds of fuel to the spacecraft’s fuel tank.

Planetary probes never end up lighter than planned, at least until now. During construction scientists have always found it impossible to resist adding more instruments or capabilities, and thus engineers always struggle to get the spacecraft built within its weight budget. For OSIRIS-REx to have this wonderful problem is surely astonishing.