NASA plans to visit a near-Earth asteroid
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 11:31
in Astronomy & Space
In a few years a NASA spacecraft will seek the building blocks of life in a shovelful of asteroid dirt. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, targeted for launch in September 2016, will intercept asteroid 1999 RQ36, orbit it for a year, and then reach out a robotic arm to touch its surface.