NASA's OSIRIS-APEX Said 'Earth Who?' and Yeeted Itself Toward Chaos Asteroid 🚀

NASA’s Space Probe is Giving Main Character Energy on Its Way to Flirt with Death Rock

Okay bestie, so NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX probe just pulled the most iconic move and I’m actually obsessed. This absolute unit of a spacecraft literally said ‘hold my Tang’ and used Earth as a slingshot to yeet itself toward the asteroid Apophis – you know, the rock that’s basically the villain origin story of space objects.

But not before serving us some absolutely fire pics of Earth and the Moon because apparently even space probes understand the assignment when it comes to documenting their glow-up journey.

The photos are lowkey giving ‘aesthetic space influencer’ vibes and I’m here for it. Like, imagine being so confident in your trajectory that you take time for a photoshoot while traveling at speeds that would make Formula 1 drivers cry.

OSIRIS-APEX really said ‘I’m about to disappear for 5 years but lemme leave y’all with some content’ and honestly? Iconic behavior.

For context, Apophis is that asteroid that scientists were once like ‘this could literally end us in 2029’ but then they did the math again and were like ‘never mind, we’re good.

’ Still, this 1,100-foot space rock (which is giving final boss energy) is going to pass closer to Earth than some of our satellites. So naturally, NASA was like ‘bet, let’s send a probe to get the tea.

’ No cap, the fact that we can just casually launch spacecraft to investigate potentially dangerous asteroids is proof that humans really woke up and chose chaos as a species.

The mission isn’t reaching Apophis until 2029, which means OSIRIS-APEX is about to be in its flop era for the next few years – just floating through space, probably listening to sad space music and counting down the days.

But these early photos prove the probe is healthy and on track, so at least it’s not giving us any ‘technical difficulties’ drama. When 2029 hits and this probe starts sending back close-up pics of Apophis, it’s going to be absolutely unhinged.

Scientists are going to be fed for YEARS analyzing that data. Truly, space exploration continues to be the ultimate long game and we stan a patient queen.