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Mapping Instrument Added To OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft

OSIRIS-REx
(Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
An artist's rendering of OSIRIS-REx.

The device that will map the surface of an asteroid is being installed on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

The University of Arizona leads the OSIRIS-REx mission. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September and get a sample from an asteroid.

The Canadian Space Agency supplied the laser instrument that will help scientists select the best place to get a small sample of the asteroid. The spacecraft is being assembled in Denver by Lockheed Martin.

One more instrument, a spectrometer being built by students and faculty at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be added early in 2016.

More About The Mission

More OSIRIS-REx Coverage

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Sara Hammond was a reporter at Arizona Public Media in Tucson from 2015 to 2018.