LAUSR

In May 2011, NASA selected the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission as the third of its New Frontiers program missions. The previous, yet ongoing, two New Frontiers missions are New Horizons— which explored Pluto during a flyby in July 2015 and is on its way for a flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 on 1 January 2019—and Juno—an orbiting mission that is studying the origin, evolution, and internal structure of Jupiter. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departed for near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 evolved expendable launch vehicle at 7:05 p.m. eastern daylight time (EDT) on 8 September 2016 for a seven-year journey to return samples from Bennu. Bennu is an Earth-crossing asteroid that has an orbital semi-major axis of 1.1264 AU, which is greater than that of the Earth, but a perihelion distance of 0.89689 AU, less than the Earth’s aphelion distance.