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 ...

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Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center technicians and engineers cycle the sample return capsule (SRC) door in a test of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation ...

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to return samples of Asteroid Bennu to Earth. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ...

HOUSTON—The curation team for the Osiris-Rex sample return mission at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) here has managed to release two fasteners that have prevented full access to sample materials ...

Bits of rock and dust brought back from the distant asteroid Bennu contain some of the chemical building blocks of life, NASA announced Wednesday, a discovery that strengthens the theory that ...

NASA scientists opening the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return lid at the Johnson Space Center. Credit: Robert Markowitz / NASA Inside Building 31 at Johnson Space Center, NASA scientists have opened ...

Sometimes, it's the big missions that are the most impressive -- your moon landings and your ISS construction projects. But these days, the big space projects that define the push toward a future in ...

The largest sample returned from an asteroid could contain insights into our solar system's past and the origin of life on Earth. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...

An incredibly ambitious project to return samples from an asteroid has passed a major milestone, and has NASA's blessing to take the text step toward a launch in September 2016. Share on Facebook ...

Three months after leaving Earth with its dust, the Tucson-born OSIRIS spacecraft just passed its hottest test yet. Preliminary data indicates the robotic probe survived its closest ever approach to ...

NASA’s third New Frontiers-class mission, the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return probe, cleared a crucial decision point for development May 15 and is expected to proceed in preparation for launch to ...