{"id":15510,"date":"2016-05-20T18:06:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T10:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-probe-that-will-make-round-trip-to-asteroid-and-back-sent-to-launch-base\/"},"modified":"2016-05-20T18:06:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T10:06:46","slug":"nasa-probe-that-will-make-round-trip-to-asteroid-and-back-sent-to-launch-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-probe-that-will-make-round-trip-to-asteroid-and-back-sent-to-launch-base\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA probe that will make round trip to asteroid and back sent to launch base"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15247\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15247\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/orex_ship.png\" alt=\"Credit: OSIRIS-REx project\" width=\"960\" height=\"355\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/orex_ship.png 960w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/orex_ship-300x111.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/orex_ship-768x284.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15247\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: OSIRIS-REx project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA\u2019s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening.<\/p>\n<p>A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a 7-year, round trip voyage to return a specimen of the celestial object to scientists on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great adventure to explore an unknown world. We are going to reach out and touch it, and we are going to bring treasure back to Earth,\u201d said Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx principal investigator.<\/p>\n<p>It is a daring mission to be sure, with the tiny solar-powered satellite executing a \u201ctouch-and-go\u201d maneuver at 0.22 mph in 2019 to obtain the sample from the relic of the solar system\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n<p>OSIRIS-REx\u2019s arm will contact the surface of Bennu for only five seconds, firing a puff of nitrogen gas to stir up the regolith into the collection chamber. The mission hopes to obtain between 2.1 ounces and 4.4 pounds of Bennu, the most extraterrestrial material returned to Earth since Apollo.<\/p>\n<p>After the valuable cargo is stowed, the craft will fly back to Earth and fire a descent capsule to a parachute-assisted landing in September 2023 in Utah.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U-VR6pNi70k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe asteroids record the earliest stages of the solar system, so it really is time capsule from the very dawn in the history of our solar system,\u201d Lauretta said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dream is that we find something that is unique, that is not represented in our meteorite collection, that is really organically-rich material on the surface of this asteroid that holds all kinds of scientific treasures about the origin of life and organic molecular evolution in the solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The launch campaign began today as OSIRIS-REx was flown from Lockheed Martin production facilities in Denver, via Buckley Air Force Base, to the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. The Air Force C-17 transport aircraft touched down just before 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>It will be taken to the Payload Hazardous Serving Facility to undergo final testing and the loading of 2,600 pounds of maneuvering fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Two other Atlas launches are scheduled between now and OSIRIS-REx, deploying a Navy communications spacecraft on June 24 and a classified spy satellite at the end of July.<\/p>\n<p>Then stacking of the 411-configured Atlas 5 will occur in August at Cape Canaveral for America\u2019s first asteroid sample-return mission. The two-stage rocket will feature a lone side-mounted solid booster for added takeoff thrust, a unique variant that has flown successfully three times before.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15249\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15249\" style=\"width: 403px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ASTRA_2.jpg\" alt=\"The first Atlas 5-411 launched the European ASTRA 1KR television broadcast satellite in 2006. Credit: Ben Cooper\/Spaceflight Now\" width=\"403\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ASTRA_2.jpg 403w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ASTRA_2-202x300.jpg 202w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first Atlas 5-411 launched the European ASTRA 1KR television broadcast satellite in 2006. Credit: Ben Cooper\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ULA and NASA managers plan to move the rocket to the launch pad temporarily in late August for a full countdown dress rehearsal and fueling exercise to uncover any technical issues.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because OSIRIS-REx has a limited launch window, through Oct. 12, for planetary alignment reasons. If it misses this opportunity, the flight would be delayed a year.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff on Sept. 8 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT). The day\u2019s 120-minute launch window will have liftoff chances every five minutes based on the evolving trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>The OSIRIS-REx name stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. It is the third mission in NASA\u2019s New Frontiers program to explore the solar system, following New Horizons to Pluto and Juno currently en route to Jupiter.<\/p>\n<p>Our Atlas archive.<\/p>\n<p>Our Delta archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: OSIRIS-REx project CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA\u2019s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3428,724,3600,472,190,1527,750],"class_list":["post-15510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-bennu","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-067","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-nasa","tag-osiris-rex","tag-united-launch-alliance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}