> The spacecraft entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, and made Bennu the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.

You can’t say that and not tell us how small Bennu is! From Wikipedia, it seems like it’s about half a kilometer wide.

> If the spacecraft drifts away from Bennu, or some other problem forces it into safe mode, it has been programmed to fly away from the asteroid to stay safe from impact.

> “It’s simple logic: always burn toward the Sun if something goes wrong”

I see the requirement to avoid a collision while in safe mode, but how is burning sunward always the safest direction?

It looks like the probe might be in a polar orbit, and it may also be the case that the plane of the orbit is perpendicular to the sun, so burning sunward would always be safe.

What a fascinating project. I wonder, however: If the asteroid is so flimsy, might the spacecraft's maneuvers influence or even destabilize its orbit?

It still masses a million tons more than the orbiting probe

Gravity is tiny - 1/100,000th of that of earth. Escape velocity is about 20cm/second, so don’t stand up quickly!

Why no closeups?

See the Gallery [1] for imagery.

[1] https://www.asteroidmission.org/galleries/spacecraft-imagery...

Wow!!

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