Atlas V First Stage Booster is Lifted for OSIRIS-REx

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket first stage booster is lifted to be placed in position at Space Launch Complex 41. With a Centaur upper stage, it will boost NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.

Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson