NASA & SPACE NEWS
(NASA) – NASA will host an event in Utah’s western desert on Wednesday, August 30, to learn about NASA preparations and readiness to receive America’s first asteroid sample collected in space.
As part of the visit, NASA will host a news conference on the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) sample capsule’s landing and recovery plans from the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range no earlier than 5 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. MDT).
The news conference will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
In addition to the news conference, in-person participants will have the opportunity to interview OSIRIS-REx mission team members, tour the temporary clean room where the sample capsule will be dissembled, and visit the edge of the capsule’s landing area.
News conference participants are:
■ Melissa Morris, OSIRIS-REx program executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington
■ Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson
■ Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
■ Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx program manager, Lockheed Martin, Littleton, Colorado
■ Kevin Righter, OSIRIS-REx deputy curation lead, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston
U.S. media interested in attending the news conference in person must register online by 3 p.m. MDT (5 p.m. EDT) on Monday, Aug. 14.
On Sept. 24, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will approach Earth and release its sample return capsule into the atmosphere on a path to land at the Utah Test and Training Range.
The touchdown will mark the end of a seven-year journey to explore asteroid Bennu, collect a sample from its surface, and deliver it to Earth for study.
Scientists around the world will study the sample over the coming decades to learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.
During the week of Aug. 30, the OSIRIS-REx mission team is testing their landing and recovery plans with the goal of reducing the time to safely retrieve the sample capsule from the desert floor and transport it to a clean room on base, protecting the rocks and dust collected from the surface of Bennu from earthly contaminants.
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