[meteorite-list] NASA's Asteroid Sample Return Mission Moves into Development (OSIRIS-REx)

[Ron Baalke]

May 16, 2013

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Nancy Neal Jones 
Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. 
301-286-0039 
nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 13-143

NASA'S ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN MISSION MOVES INTO DEVELOPMENT

WASHINGTON -- NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid is moving 
ahead into development and testing in preparation for its launch in 
2016. 

The Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security 
Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) passed a confirmation review Wednesday 
called Key Decision Point (KDP)-C. NASA officials reviewed a series 
of detailed project assessments and authorized the spacecraft's 
continuation into the development phase. 

OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return 
a sample of it to Earth in 2023. 

"Successfully passing KDP-C is a major milestone for the project," 
said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard 
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This means NASA believes we 
have an executable plan to return a sample from Bennu. It now falls 
on the project and its development team members to execute that 
plan." 

Bennu could hold clues to the origin of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx 
will map the asteroid's global properties, measure non-gravitational 
forces and provide observations that can be compared with data 
obtained by telescope observations from Earth. OSIRIS-REx will 
collect a minimum of 2 ounces (60 grams) of surface material. 

"The entire OSIRIS-REx team has worked very hard to get to this 
point," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the 
University of Arizona in Tucson. "We have a long way to go before we 
arrive at Bennu , but I have every confidence when we do, we will 
have built a supremely capable system to return a sample of this 
primitive asteroid." 

The mission will be a vital part of NASA's plans to find, study, 
capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration by astronauts. NASA 
recently announced an asteroid initiative proposing a strategy to 
leverage human and robotic activities for the first human mission to 
an asteroid while also accelerating efforts to improve detection and 
characterization of asteroids. 

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. will provide 
overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and 
mission assurance. The University of Arizona in Tucson is the 
principal investigator institution. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of 
Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in 
NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in 
Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. 

For more information on OSIRIS-REx, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html 

and 

http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/ 
	
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