NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex Mission

On 8 September, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched. It will spend a year orbiting the Sun, before travelling towards Earth on 23 September 2017, where it will slingshot around the planet and start heading towards the asteroid Bennu. Bennu measures 500m in diameter and comes close to Earth every six years. OSIRIS-REx’s arrival at Bennu is scheduled for August 2018, and it will start orbiting the asteroid in October that year, scanning and mapping the surface. In July 2020 it will gather a sample from the surface, before heading back to Earth.