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| The Osiris-Rex Spacecraft Begins Chasing an Asteroid | |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| NASA’s mission to grab pieces of an asteroid and bring them back to Earth took off on Thursday night. | NASA’s mission to grab pieces of an asteroid and bring them back to Earth took off on Thursday night. |
| “You’ll be glad to know we got everything just exactly perfect,” Dante Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator, said at a news conference after the launch of the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. | “You’ll be glad to know we got everything just exactly perfect,” Dante Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator, said at a news conference after the launch of the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. |
| The craft began its journey on top of an Atlas 5 rocket that lifted off into the summer sky above Cape Canaveral, Fla. Seven years from now, the craft is to return and parachute a capsule with the asteroid bits into a Utah desert, giving scientists a window to some of the material that made up the early solar system, including some of the molecules that gave rise to life on Earth. | The craft began its journey on top of an Atlas 5 rocket that lifted off into the summer sky above Cape Canaveral, Fla. Seven years from now, the craft is to return and parachute a capsule with the asteroid bits into a Utah desert, giving scientists a window to some of the material that made up the early solar system, including some of the molecules that gave rise to life on Earth. |
| Twelve minutes after liftoff, the second-stage engine of the Atlas 5 shut off, leaving Osiris-Rex in orbit around Earth. After some coasting, the engine fired again to kick the spacecraft onto a path around the sun. After the craft separated from the second stage, it deployed its solar arrays and established communications with controllers on the ground. | Twelve minutes after liftoff, the second-stage engine of the Atlas 5 shut off, leaving Osiris-Rex in orbit around Earth. After some coasting, the engine fired again to kick the spacecraft onto a path around the sun. After the craft separated from the second stage, it deployed its solar arrays and established communications with controllers on the ground. |
| ”The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is happy and healthy,” said Richard Kuhns, the program manager at Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft. | ”The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is happy and healthy,” said Richard Kuhns, the program manager at Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft. |
| A year from now, Osiris-Rex will swing back around and make a close flyby of Earth, using the planet’s gravity to tilt the angle of its orbit to match that of Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid that is 1,600 feet in diameter and has an orbit around the sun similar to Earth’s. It is about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall. | A year from now, Osiris-Rex will swing back around and make a close flyby of Earth, using the planet’s gravity to tilt the angle of its orbit to match that of Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid that is 1,600 feet in diameter and has an orbit around the sun similar to Earth’s. It is about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall. |
| Osiris-Rex — a shortening of Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer — will catch up to Bennu in 2018, entering orbit for more than a year of observation to allow scientists to figure out where they want to scoop their sample. | Osiris-Rex — a shortening of Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer — will catch up to Bennu in 2018, entering orbit for more than a year of observation to allow scientists to figure out where they want to scoop their sample. |
| The spacecraft will then swoop in and touch Bennu’s surface for a few seconds, using a burst of nitrogen to kick up pebbles and dirt. Osiris-Rex is to leave Bennu in 2021 and drop off the asteroid samples in 2023. | The spacecraft will then swoop in and touch Bennu’s surface for a few seconds, using a burst of nitrogen to kick up pebbles and dirt. Osiris-Rex is to leave Bennu in 2021 and drop off the asteroid samples in 2023. |