OSIRIS-REx, NASA's Asteroid-Bound Sample Recovery Spacecraft, Gets A Launch Date

OSIRIS-REx, NASA's first spacecraft designed to travel to a near-Earth asteroid, will be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force base in Florida at 7:05 p.m. EDT on Sept. 8, the space agency said in a statement Wednesday. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu with the aim of mapping its surface and identifying, collecting and returning pristine samples of high science value. "This mission exemplifies our nation's quest to boldly go and study our solar system and beyond to better understand the universe and our place in it," Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in the statement. "NASA science is the greatest engine of scientific discovery on the planet and OSIRIS-REx embodies our directorate's goal to innovate, explore, discover, and inspire." The 4,600 pound spacecraft, which will be launched aboard an Atlas V 411 rocket, will reach the asteroid in 2018.