Lockheed Martin recently delivered the OSIRIS-REx asteroid-sampling spacecraft to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will now undergo final processing before a September launch to its intended target, the asteroid Bennu.
“Delivering OSIRIS-REx to the launch site marks an important milestone, one that’s been many years in the making,” Rich Kuhns, Lockheed Martin Space Systems' OSIRIS-REx program manager, said. “The spacecraft has undergone a rigorous environmental test program in Denver, but we still have plenty of work ahead of us. Many on our team have temporarily moved to Florida so they can continue final processing and have the spacecraft ready for launch in three-and-a-half months.”
The spacecraft’s name stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, and once it lands on Bennu, it will collect at least 60 grams of material before returning to Earth. In analyzing the material from Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid, scientists may find clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth.
“This team has done a phenomenal job assembling and testing the spacecraft,” Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, said. “As we begin the final preparations for launch, I am confident that this spacecraft is ready to perform its science operations at Bennu, and I can’t wait to fly it.”
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