[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 135 (Thursday, September 8, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  LAUNCH OF THE OSIRIS-REx SPACE CRAFT

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am proud to come to the Senate floor to 
call attention and to honor the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which is 
scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, FL, tonight at 7 p.m.
  In the finest traditions of space exploration, this spacecraft will 
journey on a 7-year roundtrip mission to an asteroid that NASA has 
classified as ``potentially hazardous'' to Earth--to complete a survey 
and return to Earth with the largest sample of extraterrestrial 
material since the Apollo lunar missions.
  This program will yield insights into asteroid composition and how 
asteroids move in space. The truth is that, despite the potential for 
large asteroids to impact the Earth in catastrophic ways, we still know 
relatively little about them. The OSIRIS-REx mission will shed light 
onto both their physical and chemical properties, which is information 
that will be critical for predicting their movements and designing 
strategies to prevent catastrophic asteroid impacts to the Earth, as 
well as aid in the commercial exploitation of near-earth objects.
  The most unique aspect of the OSIRIS-REx mission is the large and 
pristine sample of the asteroid that will be brought back to Earth, 
which will allow scientists to examine the composition of an asteroid 
using instruments and techniques that are far more advanced than what 
could be done in space. Scientists from the University of Arizona, UA, 
will also examine the sample for the resources that could be mined from 
asteroids in the future, such as precious metals. Interestingly, 
medium- to large-sized space rocks might contain hundreds of millions, 
if not billions, of dollars in minerals and precious metals.
  Perhaps the most important aspect of this mission is the research 
into the origins of our universe and galaxy it will provide. The 
samples that the mission will bring back will help begin to answer some 
of the most profound and fundamental questions that have intrigued 
mankind since the beginning.
  The OSIRIS-REx mission is funded by NASA and led by UA from my own 
great State of Arizona. I would like to congratulate UA president Ann 
Weaver Hart and former president Robert Shelton for championing space 
exploration; Dr. Dante Lauretta of the UA Lunar and Planetary 
Laboratory for his leadership as principal investigator; and his team, 
for bringing this exciting mission to the launch stage. I understand 
that under the leadership of the late Dr. Michael Drake and Dr. 
Lauretta, UA has been working on this concept for the last 15 years.
  I would also like to acknowledge the other project partners, which 
include NASA's Goddard Space Center; Lockheed Martin, which built the 
spacecraft bus on which the various science instruments are mounted; 
Arizona State University, which built an instrument on the spacecraft 
that will investigate mineral abundances and provide temperature 
information; KinetX Aerospace; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 
and United Launch Alliance
  I also appreciate our international collaborators, including, the 
Canadian Space Agency and the Centre national d'etudes spatiales, CNES, 
i.e., the French Government space agency.
  This mission is the latest of a long list of achievements by UA and 
its globally recognized space scientists. In fact, UA scientists have 
collaborated in every single American mission to the Moon and 
contributed to every mission to Mars since 1964, including serving as 
the lead on the Phoenix Mars Mission.
  With this mission, UA is expanding the boundaries of space science, 
including innovating in the global challenge of planetary orbital 
object tracking through their Space Object Behavioral Sciences, SOBS, 
Initiative. Furthermore, I applaud UA, NASA, and Lockheed Martin for 
helping maintain U.S. leadership in near-Earth space, particularly at a 
time when the international community is showing a high interest in 
moving into this arena.
  I wish the OSIRIS-REx team the best of luck for a successful launch. 
As the OSIRIS-REx countdown clock that has been hanging in my office 
for the last year gets very close to zero, I look forward to tuning in 
to NASA TV to watch history being made.
  Thank you.

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