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NASA's first asteroid-sampler poised for evening liftoff

 
NASA's Osirius-Rex spacecraft sits at its launchpad at Cape Canaveral. The mission  is the first U.S. attempt to reach an asteroid return a sample to Earth for study. [NASA]
NASA's Osirius-Rex spacecraft sits at its launchpad at Cape Canaveral. The mission is the first U.S. attempt to reach an asteroid return a sample to Earth for study. [NASA]
Published Sept. 8, 2016

CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA's first asteroid-sampling spacecraft is poised for an evening liftoff tonight.

The spacecraft, Osiris-Rex, will be aiming for asteroid Bennu. The probe will orbit the big rock, vacuum up some gravel, then haul the sample back to Earth. The entire quest will take seven years.

NASA has gone after comet dust and solar wind particles before, but never pieces of an asteroid. It promises to be the biggest cosmic haul since the Apollo moon rocks.

The launch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Eight-thousand NASA guests are descending on Cape Canaveral for the launch, including the schoolboy who named the asteroid. Mike Puzio of Greensboro, N.C., won a naming contest in 2013. Now 12, he can't wait to see his first upclose rocket launch.

The name Bennu comes from the heron of Egyptian mythology.