<p>At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, preparations are underway to lift a United Launch Alliance Atlas V first stage booster at Space Launch Complex 41. With a Centaur upper stage, it will boost NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasakennedy/28864662696/">OSIRIS-REx, Atlas V SoliKSC-20160808-PH_GFB01_0010d Rocket Booster (SRB) Launch Vehicle On Stand (LVOS)</a>