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    ULA Team Ready for Launch

    Launch Conductor Scott Barney has checked in with his ULA team members and they confirmed they are go to resume the countdown at the T-4 minute mark. The hold will be released at 7:01 p.m. Liftoff is on schedule for 7:05 p.m. EDT.

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    Final Built-in Hold Coming Up

    Although the countdown will pause at the T-4 minute mark, the team's work will not. During this 15-minute planned hold, we can expect to hear final readiness polls as NASA Launch Manager Tim Dunn and ULA Launch Conductor Scott Barney verify OSIRIS-REx, the Atlas V rocket and the Eastern Range are ready to proceed.

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    Weather Briefing: Still ‘Go’

    Weather conditions remain favorable for liftoff at 7:05 p.m. EDT. "All [launch commit criteria] are ‘go' and expected to remain ‘go' for the remainder of the countdown," Launch Weather Officer Clay Flinn told controllers.

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    Why Visit Bennu?

    Animation still comparing, from left to right, the asteroid Bennu, the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower

    OSIRIS-REx is headed to Bennu, a roughly spherical asteroid measuring about 1,614 feet (492 meters) in diameter. All asteroids represent remnants of the building blocks of our solar system, so why did scientists decide to send a mission to this one? Location, location, location. For a sample return mission, accessibility is key. Bennu travels in …

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    A Nationwide Effort

    A white triangle with a blue inner border. In the middle is a round, grey lump, with a red swoosh wrapped around it. An object with wings hovers over the lump on its top left. Underneath this scene, is the mission name, and underneath that is a brief description of it.

    Overall mission management for OSIRIS-REx, including systems engineering as well as safety and mission assurance, is provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dante Lauretta is the mission's principal investigator at the University of Arizona, and the spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver. Launch management is the responsibility …

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    View of Space Launch Complex 41

    Atlas V on SLC 41 venting gaseous oxygen during tanking for OSIRIS-REx launch

    In the image above from NASA TV, viewers can clearly see gaseous oxygen venting away from the Atlas V booster. This is normal and is caused when small amounts of cryogenic liquid oxygen boil off and are vented away. "All the fueling operations have gone perfectly fine today," NASA Launch Commentator Mike Curie reported.

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    One Hour Until Launch

    Tonight's launch window opens at 7:05 p.m. EDT, one hour from now. All activities are on schedule for liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 rocket carrying NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 41.

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