Tag: Atlas 5
-
Animation of OSIRIS-REx mission from liftoff to return home
This NASA animation depicts the OSIRIS-REx mission beginning with liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 8, embarking on a voyage to rendezvous and orbit Asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft will use its cameras, laser and spectrometer instruments to map the mountain-size rock starting in late 2018 before performing…
-
Probe hoisted aboard launcher to leave Earth next week on asteroid adventure
File photo of Atlas payload lift and mate. Credit: United Launch Alliance CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft today moved a step closer to starting a voyage to explore an uncharted world in our solar system — the mountain-sized Asteroid Bennu — by joining the booster rocket that will propel it from Earth next week.…
-
Atlas 5 rocket rehearses countdown for upcoming launch to Asteroid Bennu
The venting Atlas 5 during today’s WDR. Credit: NASA-KSC/Kim Shiflett CAPE CANAVERAL — Running through a practice countdown to check systems before launching a NASA sample-return probe to Asteroid Bennu in exactly two weeks, an Atlas 5 successfully completed its Wet Dress Rehearsal today. The United Launch Alliance rocket will propel the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on…
-
Photos: Atlas 5 rocket assembled for launch of asteroid sample return probe
At Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility, adjacent to the Complex 41 launch pad, workers with United Launch Alliance stacked the Atlas 5 rocket that will propel NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on its voyage to Asteroid Bennu. On Monday, Aug. 8, the first stage was erected onto the mobile launch platform parked inside the assembly building. A…
-
One of NASA’s cleanest spacecraft ever is ready to fly
A member of the OSIRIS-REx team prepares the spacecraft for launch Sept. 8. The Atlas 5 rocket’s payload fairing is in the background. Credit: Ben Cooper/Launchphotography.com Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft…
-
Photos: OSIRIS-REx prepped for encapsulation
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to be sealed inside the nose fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket booster for a seven-year voyage to asteroid Bennu and back to Earth on a mission to seek out clues to the origin of life and the chaotic early solar system. The solar-powered, 4,651-pound (2,110-kilogram) spacecraft is inside the…
-
Video: Walk around NASA’s new asteroid sample probe
Take a walk around NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft less than three weeks before its Sept. 8 launch on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. Rich Kuhns, the mission’s program manager from Lockheed Martin, points out some of the major features on the probe. Lockheed Martin built the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will oversee mission operators after it…
-
Sophisticated new U.S. weather observatory being readied for launch
The GOES R weather satellite folded up for launch. Credit: Lockheed Martin CAPE CANAVERAL — On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November. The first-of-its-kind observatory dubbed GOES R was flown aboard an Air Force…
-
Video: Preview of the OSIRIS-REx mission to sample an asteroid
Watch the pre-flight news conference that introduces NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Sept. 8. The mission will reach Asteroid Bennu in 2018, capture a sample of the celestial body in 2020 and bring the specimen back to Earth in a special landing…
-
Photos: Solar arrays attached to asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx spacecraft
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, workers have finished the pre-launch assembly and fueling of OSIRIS-REx for the asteroid sample return spacecraft for liftoff Sept. 8. The probe will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket en route to Asteroid Bennu to capture a specimen for return to Earth. Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing…