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“Here’s some of the stories trending This
Week at NASA!”

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“And liftoff of OSIRIS REx ...”

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On Sept. 8, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral
Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security

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- Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx mission
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to sample
an asteroid, is scheduled to arrive at near-Earth

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asteroid Bennu in 2018.

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Mission plans call for the spacecraft to survey
the asteroid, retrieve a small sample from

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its surface, and return the sample to Earth
for study in 2023.

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Analysis of that sample is expected to reveal
clues about the history of Bennu over the

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past 4.5 billion years, as well as clues about
the evolution of our solar system.

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Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA
closed out a record-breaking tour aboard the

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International Space Station when he and cosmonauts
Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of the

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Russian space agency Roscomos departed the
station on Sept. 6.

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This was the end of Williams’ third long-duration
tour aboard the station and upped his total

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number of days in space to 534 – both are
records for an American astronaut.

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The crew landed safely several hours later
in Kazakhstan after spending 172 days conducting

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research aboard the station.

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Meanwhile, the next crew headed to the ISS
– Expedition 49-50, which includes NASA’s

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Shane Kimbrough, continues its pre-launch
activities.

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Kimbrough, cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and
Andrey Borisenko, and members of the back-up

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crew participated in traditional ceremonies
in Star City, Russia on Sept. 8.

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Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete final

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training for the launch of Kimbrough, Ryzhikov
and Borisenko on Sept. 23 Eastern Time for

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a five-month mission on the International
Space Station.

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For the second year in a row, a team of engineering
students from West Virginia University won

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the Level 2 competition of NASA’s Sample
Return Robot Challenge at Worcester Polytechnic

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Institute, in Massachusetts.

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The team earned $750,000 in prize money by
successfully navigating its robot to retrieve

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the most simulated samples in the timed competition.

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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was on hand
to congratulate the team.

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The annual event provides an opportunity for
citizens to help NASA address problems that

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might be encountered on future deep space
exploration missions.

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An update on NASA’s future all-electric
X-57 aircraft named “Maxwell”.

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Weeks after arriving at aerospace company,
Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, the

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agency’s first X-plane in a decade has reached
a new milestone.

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Maxwell’s wing was integrated with its fuselage,
bringing the X-57 closer to its final phase-two

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configuration.

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Next, work on the motor mounts and battery
systems will continue the process of converting

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the Tecnam P2006T into NASA’s first fully
electric X-plane featuring distributed electric

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propulsion.

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This design aims to demonstrate flight that
is cruise efficient, quieter, and more environmentally

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friendly – all key elements in NASA’s
New Aviation Horizons initiative.

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NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland
highlighted new aviation ideas and technologies

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during the second annual Convergent Aeronautics
Solutions (CAS) Showcase on Sept. 7.

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The event featured work by NASA researchers
dedicated to pushing the boundaries of aviation,

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and achieving new capabilities in aeronautics.

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The most promising of the technologies and
concepts will be considered for further development

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by NASA aeronautics programs or by direct
transfer to the aviation community.

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And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …