Asteroid mission on pad for Thursday launch aboard Atlas V

Update, 10:15 a.m. Wednesday:

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has reached its final stop before a planned 7:05 p.m. Thursday blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the $800 million mission's spacecraft rolled on a transporter from a processing tower to the pad at Launch Complex 41, completing the quarter-mile move in less than an hour.

Earlier:

An Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's first asteroid sample-return mission will roll to its Cape Canaveral pad Wednesday in preparation for a Thursday evening launch, after managers found no ill effects from a SpaceX rocket’s nearby explosion last week.

“It was a stark reminder to me and to this whole team about the risks that that we face in this business,” said Dante Lauretta, lead scientist for NASA’s $800 million OSIRIS-REx mission, during a pre-launch news conference Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center. “It made us take a look again at everything we had done — all of our processes, all of our procedures, all of our equipment.”

Over the long weekend, KSC’s Launch Services Program analyzed the incident last Thursday that destroyed SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and a commercial communications satellite, while the rocket was being fueled during a test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 40.

Multiple explosions that sent fireballs and smoke billowing from the seaside pad occurred barely a mile south of Launch Complex 41, where the asteroid mission was preparing to lift off on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, satellite destroyed in explosion

Tim Dunn, the NASA mission’s launch director, said the program's review included proprietary data from SpaceX and determined “there is no elevated risk to OSIRIS-REx launching on an Atlas V.”

ULA performed a detailed inspection of the processing tower housing the 189-foot Atlas V and its spacecraft, and the surrounding launch pad area.

“Our Atlas V vehicle as well as OSIRIS-REx are safely buttoned up and secure,” said Scott Messer, ULA’s program manager for NASA missions. “We haven’t identified any damage or any concerns as a result of the incident last week.”

Messer said he was not aware of any SpaceX debris being found at the Atlas V pad.

SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion a reminder of crew risks

Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, a transporter carrying the Atlas V and Lockheed-Martin built spacecraft is expected to start rolling along rails from the processing tower to the pad about a quarter-mile to the north.

The weather forecast looks promising for the mission's planned 7:05 p.m. Thursday liftoff, about a half-hour before sunset.

There’s an 80 percent chance of conditions acceptable for launch during the nearly two-hour launch window.

OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretations, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer.

The 4,600-pound spacecraft aims to rendezvous with the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu in 2018, collect at least a two-ounce sample from the asteroid’s surface in 2020 and return it to Earth in 2023.

The asteroid measuring about one-third of a mile wide is a remnant of the solar system’s formation more than 4.5 billion years ago.

Scientists expect a detailed mapping and analysis of the primitive space rock, and the pristine sample returned from it, to advance understanding of early planetary formation and the kinds of materials that may have been helped form life on Earth.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx nearing launch to collect asteroid sample

Launch Thursday

Visit floridatoday.com starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday for countdown chats and updates as NASA attempts a 7:05 p.m. launch of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.