OSIRIS-REx Solar Array Inspected

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a solar array is being inspected, tested and cleaned before being integrated with the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, 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/Ben Smegelsky