Countdown starts for UA-led asteroid mission
Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - 08:00
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) —With OSIRIS-REx, the first spacecraft destined to return a sample from a primitive asteroid, still taking shape, the mission's University of Arizona-led team started the official countdown clock on Monday at 5:43 p.m. MST. At that exact moment, 999 days remained until the opening of the mission's launch window on Sept. 3, 2016. The start of the clock also marks the launch of a new outreach and social media campaign to share the excitement about the mission, which comes with largest grant the UA has ever been awarded. The OSIRIS-REx mission is budgeted for more than $800 million, plus the launch rocket, which is supplied by NASA.