United Launch Alliance delivers NROL-101 to orbit aboard a recently-upgraded Atlas V rocket, flying with Northrop Grumman GEM-63 Solid Rocket Boosters for the first time.
Read More![A still frame from an animation released by the OSIRIS-REx team depicts the TAGSAM collection head being stowed in the sample return capsule. Credit: NASA/NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center/OSIRIS-REx Mission](/img/uploads/2020/10/stowing-tagsam-201026090031-390x205.png)
Expect Three Days of Contingency Operations as Regolith Leaks from OSIRIS-REx
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is a victim of its own success. Five pieces of the asteroid have prevented a Mylar flap from closing, allowing valuable science material to leak out. More material will leak out over three upcoming days of stow activity.
Read More![Captured by the spacecraft’s SamCam camera on Oct. 22, 2020, this series of three images shows that the sampler head on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA](/img/uploads/2020/10/resized-201023205223-390x205.gif)
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Collects Significant Amount of Asteroid
NASA OSIRIS-REx mission team releases additional information about Touch-and-Go.
Read More![Captured on Oct. 20 during the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this image shows the SamCam imager’s field of view at the moment when the NASA spacecraft touched down on asteroid Bennu’s surface. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 p.m. EDT. Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona](/img/uploads/2020/10/13744-thumb1-201021180854-390x205.jpg)
Sampling Success: OSIRIS-REx Successfully Gathers Bennu Regolith for Asteroid Sample Return
"...I dreamed of an array of Bennu regolith floating around me." - Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator, OSIRIS-REx
Read More![A full-scale engineering model of OSIRIS-REx's TAGSAM collector, used to gather samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu. Photo credit: Jared Haworth / We Report Space](/img/uploads/2020/10/atlas-v-osiris-rex-jared-haworth-17285-201020101410-390x205.jpg)
OSIRIS-REx To Attempt TAG of Asteroid Bennu
Asteroid Bennu will have its "close encounter" with OSIRIS-REx on October 20, 2020, as the spacecraft makes contact and collects samples for study back on earth.
Read More![We Report Space Book](/img/we-report-space-book-300x300.jpg)
Stunning, full color photo book covering every east coast launch spanning 2014-2015, including the first-ever powered landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
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