Atlas V Team Conducts Wet Dress Rehearsal

20 hours ago

The booster and Centaur upper stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V vent gaseous propellant during a “wet dress rehearsal” test at Space Launch Complex 41 on Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will boost NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on its way to the asteroid Bennu. Short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, OSIRIS-REx is to survey the asteroid closely before taking a sample from its surface and sending that small sample back to Earth for study. 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.