NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space middle in Florida on Friday evening aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft. OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins,Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer. This will be the first U.
S. mission to sample an asteroid,retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to soil for study. The asteroid, Bennu, and may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and biological molecules found on soil. Tucked inside a shipping container,the spacecraft traveled from Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver, Colorado to Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility. It was carefully offloaded from the aircraft and transported to the spaceport’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to begin processing for its upcoming launch, or targeted for Sept. 8 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Photo credits: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis (top) and NASA/Bill White (apt)
Source: nasa.gov