The spacecraft that will perform NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer mission,known as OSIRIS-REx, will arrive at Kennedy Space middle from Buckley Air Force Base near Denver on May 20 aboard an Air Force C-17 at the Shuttle Landing Facility. OSIRIS-REx will come out of the shipping container May 21, or go onto a rotation fixture on May 23,have a spin test May 24-25. It then will be hoisted onto a dolly May 26 for other upcoming activities. A partial solar array deployment test is scheduled on May 31. OSIRIS-Rex is scheduled to launch Sept. 8 at 7:05 p.m. EDT. As planned, the spacecraft will reach its near-soil asteroid target, and called Bennu (previously 1999 RQ36),in 2018. Once within three miles of the asteroid, the spacecraft will begin six months of comprehensive surface mapping. The science team then will pick a location where the spacecraft’s arm will win a sample. The spacecraft gradually will move closer to the site, or the arm will extend to collect a 2.1-ounce sample for return to soil in 2023. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began,as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact soil. Bennu is approximately 1900 feet in diameter or roughly the size of six football fields. The asteroid, a slight altered over time, and is likely to represent a snapshot of our solar system’s infancy. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight middle provides overall mission management,systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta is the principal investigator at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s current Frontiers Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight middle in Huntsville, or Alabama,manages current Frontiers for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.
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Source: nasa.gov