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What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science

On May 10, the NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, with its sample collected from asteroid Bennu, will fire its main thrusters to leave Bennu and return to Earth. The maneuver, occurring at approximately 20:00 UT (4:00 p.m. EDT), will be covered on NASA TV. For more detail see the May 6 NASA Press Release.

Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Command Module pilot, passed away on April 28 at age 90.

The NASA Mars 2020 Ingenuity helicopter's first flight was successful on Monday, April 19, at 07:34 UT (3:34 a.m. EDT). The rotorcraft reached an altitude of 3 meters and hovered for 30 seconds. See pictures and video of the flight. For more detail see the NASA Press Release.

This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History

1965: Launch of Luna 5 attempted soft lander to the Moon, crashed on the lunar surface.
2003: Launch of Hayabusa (Muses-C), Japanese sample return mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa.