OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission Spacecraft Construction Set to Begin

In 2018, NASA will be sending a spacecraft to the asteroid belt that sits in a orbit between the Earth and Mars. This week, the agency announced that the team which will build the spacecraft has been given the go-ahead to begin construction on the vehicle, flight instruments, ground system, and launch support facilities.

Once complete, Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will conduct the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid.

The news comes after Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company presented a Critical Design Review to NASA during the first week in April, which met with approval.

“This is the final step for a NASA mission to go from paper to product,” said Gordon Johnston, OSIRIS-REx program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. “This confirms that the final design is ready to start the build-up towards launch.”

If all goes as planned OSIRIS-REx will launch on its way to the asteroid belt in the fall of 2016. Once there, the spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018. After taking at least two ounces of samples from the asteroid, the daring mission will see OSIRIS-REx return to Earth with its samples onboard.

“Successfully passing mission CDR is a major accomplishment, but the hard part is still in front of us — building, integrating and testing the flight system in support of a tight planetary launch window,” said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

OSIRIS-REx is part of the initiative launched by President Obama, setting a goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.