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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is
heading to asteroid Bennu...

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and back. [music]

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[music]

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The OSIRIS-REx mission
goal is to study

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near-Earth asteroid Bennu and
return a sample to Earth.  

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OSIRIS-REx’s launch window opens
September 8, 2016 from Space

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Launch Complex 41 at Cape
Canaveral, Florida.

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[dramatic music] 
[rocket fires]

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The spacecraft, nestled
inside a Centaur upper stage,

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launches on an Atlas V
rocket with a single
solid rocket booster.

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[rocket stops firing]
[dramatic music continues]

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The rocket’s first
stage separates...

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and then the Centaur upper
stage fires.

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The fairings separate
from the rocket...

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and the OSIRIS-REx
spacecraft releases from
the Centaur upper stage.

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Angled toward the Sun, the
spacecraft deploys its solar
arrays.

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Now traveling over
25,000 miles per hour,

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OSIRIS-REx escapes Earth’s
gravity...

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and begins its cruise toward
asteroid Bennu.

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[softer, driving music]

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After 23 months, the
spacecraft arrives at

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asteroid Bennu in August, 2018.

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With its suite of observational
instruments, OSIRIS-REx orbits

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the asteroid... studying its
characteristics and mapping its

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surface. After four phases of
survey observations, OSIRIS-REx

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begins preparations to collect
the sample. In July 2020, after

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months of rehearsals and study,
the spacecraft approaches for

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sample collection. It slowly
descends to Bennu’s surface at

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less than a quarter mile per
hour. With an outstretched arm,

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OSIRIS-REx briefly touches the
surface. The touch-and-go sample

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acquisition mechanism, TAGSAM,
blows high-pressure nitrogen gas

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into the surface rocks and dust,
sending loose asteroid material

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up into the TAGSAM head.

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[dramatic rise and
fall in the music]

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OSIRIS-REx backs away
from Bennu... and stows the

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sample in a capsule for its
journey to Earth.

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[calm driving music continues]

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In March 2021, the window opens
for OSIRIS-REx to depart Bennu.

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[music drives harder]

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The spacecraft returns to Earth
September 24, 2023 and
jettisons the Sample Return

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Capsule. As the spacecraft
leaves Earth, the return capsule

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enters the Earth’s atmosphere at
over 27,000 miles per hour,

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protected by a heat shield.

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[intense friction of heat
shield against atmosphere]
[driving music continues]

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A couple miles above the
surface, a parachute deploys...

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[parachute deploys
and flutters in the wind]

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and the capsule lands
softly in the Utah desert.

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[soft thump] [dramatic
music climax]

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Bennu’s secrets can now be
investigated for decades
to come.

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[soft music finish]