DENVER, March 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In a clean room
facility near Denver, Lockheed
Martin [NYSE: LMT] technicians began assembling a NASA spacecraft
that will collect samples of an asteroid for scientific study.
Working toward a September 2016
launch, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will be the first U.S. mission to
return samples from an asteroid back to Earth.
OSIRIS-REx – which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation,
Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer – is going to
Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid that could hold clues to the origin
of the solar system and host organic molecules that may have seeded
life on Earth.
The assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase is a
critical stage of the program because it is when the spacecraft
physically comes together. Over the next six months, technicians
will install on the spacecraft structure its many subsystems,
including avionics, power, telecomm, mechanisms, thermal systems,
and guidance, navigation and control.
"Building a spacecraft that will bring back samples from an
asteroid is a unique opportunity," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at
Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "We can feel the momentum to launch
building. We're installing the electronics in the next few weeks
and shortly after we'll power-on the spacecraft for the first
time."
During ATLO the science instruments are being delivered from the
mission's partner institutions to be integrated with the
spacecraft. Once the spacecraft has been fully assembled, it will
undergo rigorous environmental testing this fall.
"ATLO is a turning point in the progress of our mission. After
almost four years of intense design efforts, we are now starting
flight system assembly and integration of the science instruments,"
said Dante Lauretta, principal
investigator from the University of
Arizona, Tucson. "In just
over 500 days, we will begin our seven-year journey to Bennu and
back. This is an exciting time."
On March 30, the OSIRIS-REx
project officially received authorization to transition into the
next phase of the mission, Phase D, after completing a series of
independent reviews verifying that the program's technical,
schedule and cost elements are all on course.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will provide overall
mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission
assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin is building the
spacecraft and will provide spacecraft mission operations.
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for
the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Headquartered in Bethesda,
Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace
company that employs approximately 112,000 people worldwide and is
principally engaged in the research, design, development,
manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology
systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for
2014 were $45.6 billion.
For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission:
- http://www.asteroidmission.org/
- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html
- http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/osirisrex.html
VIDEO: Asteroids and the OSIRIS-REx Mission,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLz1CeBKb7M
Media Contact:
Gary Napier, 303-971-4012,
gary.p.napier@lmco.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lockheed-martin-begins-final-assembly-of-nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-300058909.html
SOURCE Lockheed Martin