A NASA team that will conduct the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid has been given the go-ahead to begin building the spacecraft, flight instruments and ground system, and launch support facilities. This determination was made after a recent successful Mission Critical Design Review (CDR) for the NASA Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). The CDR was held at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colo., April 1-9.
An independent review board, comprised of experts from NASA and several external organizations, met to review the system design. Gordon Johnson, the OSIRIS-REx program executive at NASA Headquarters, said that this is the final step for a NASA mission to go from paper to product. This confirms that the final design is ready to start the build-up towards launch, which is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2016, rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023. The spacecraft carries five instruments that will remotely evaluate the surface of Bennu. After more than a year of asteroid reconnaissance, the spacecraft will collect samples of at least 60 grams and return them to Earth for scientists to study.
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