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Spelled out in full, the name of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft hints at the many goals scientists envision for this mission: to map asteroid Bennu using 3-D laser imaging, retrieve samples from its surface and return those samples to Earth. "The mission name is an awesome acronym that describes our primary science objectives," said Dante Lauretta, …

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — currently sealed inside the payload fairing of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket — is on track to leave Earth behind and kick off an ambitious voyage to asteroid Bennu. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. …

Propellants are being loaded into the Atlas V rocket, a process known as tanking. It begins with chilldown of the ground equipment and transfer lines prior to the flow of supercool, cryogenic propellants. The Atlas booster's single RD-180 engine uses 48,860 gallons of liquid oxygen, or LOX, in combination with a refined kerosene fuel called RP-1. …

Biomolecule Sequencer (BMS) Sample Analysis: Yesterday, the crew initiated the third BMS sample off of the task list.  Following retrieval of the Flow Cell and Media Syringe Tube from the from Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) and thawing of the sample, the crew injected the sample into the Flow Cell and …

Check out the video below for an overview of the OSIRIS-REx mission! Also, if you're in the area, this page lists several of the most popular launch viewing locations.

As one crew gets used to Earth’s gravity after 172 days in space, another crew is preparing to launch to the International Space Station in just over two weeks. Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams arrived in the United States just 24 hours after landing Tuesday evening in Kazakhstan and completing his mission. His Expedition 48 …

By Eric Lindstrom Long ago on a planet very similar to our own, oceanography was done without the Internet or regular communication with shore. It required careful planning and forecasts of the conditions to be encountered were vague at best. Executing the original plan of work for a voyage was always a good objective. Unlike […]

Forecasters from the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron continue to predict an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch of the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 7:05 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 41 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in …

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket made the trek from the Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday. Atop the rocket, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is sealed in the protective payload fairing. Liftoff is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7:05 p.m. EDT. Photo credit: …