The first ever US asteroid mission begins Thursday as NASA space probe OSIRIS- REx is launched into space to track down a potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu; a large roundish space rock that is on NASA’s list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.
The spacecraft will travel 1.2 billion miles and is scheduled to collect samples of the asteroid and return back with them in September of 2023. Bennu is arguably one of the most dangerous space rocks we know of because of its potential to one day collide with Earth.
Yes, go ahead and say it because we're thinking it too, this all sounds a lot like the plot from the 1998 sci-fi movie “Armageddon”, except in this case there won’t be any people in the OSIRIS- REx spacecraft (meaning there will also be no Bruce Willis.)
The spacecraft is set to launch between 4 and 6 p.m. PT from Cape Canaveral on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Watch the stream here.
The 7-year projected mission is NASA’s hope to learn about the constituent materials in case there is an eventual need to “redirect” the asteroid in the future as well as collect more insight into the solar system and the origins of life on Earth.
The time line for the spacecraft is as follows:
- September 2016 Launch
- August 2018 Cameras power up and locate Bennu from 1.3 million miles away
- December 2018 Rendezvous with Bennu. The spacecraft will orbit from a few miles away to map the surface and determine the best area to land and sample
- July 2020 Land and vacuum approx. 60 grams of material from the surface
- March 2021 Leave Bennu and begin flight home
- September of 2023 The SRC will reenter earth's atmosphere and parachute for a soft landing in Utah
