NASA launches seven-year mission to retrieve asteroid sample

Posted on 14 Sep 2016 by Aiden Burgess
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, was successfully launched on Sept. 8 on its mission to the Bennu Asteroid - image courtesy of Lockheed Martin and NASA

NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission launched into space last week, beginning a journey which could revolutionise our understanding of the early solar system.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, launched from Cape Canaveral on September 8 aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is designed to rendezvous with, study, and return a sample of the asteroid Bennu to Earth. Bennu and other asteroids of its kind are…

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