<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">An Atlas V rocket in Cape Canaveral, Fla., capped by NASA's asteroid Bennu-bound OSIRIS-REx probe, just before launch.</p></div><p></p></div></div>NASA successfully launched a space probe bound for the asteroid Bennu Thursday, September 8 at 7:05 p.m. ET.</p><p><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/about">OSIRIS-REx</a>, short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification-Regolith Explorer, should reach the near-Earth asteroid by 2018. "Near" is a relative term here, since <a href="http://www.asteroidmission.org/why-bennu/">Bennu is about 121 million miles</a> away.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sampling-mission-2016-9">NASA scientists are hoping</a> the nearly $1 billion mission will help them unravel how life began on Earth, how the solar system formed, and how to protect our planet from stray asteroids like Bennu.</p><p>The 190-foot tall Atlas V rocket launched right on time in perfect weather conditions from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday, bound for Bennu:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div></p><p>Once OSIRIS-REx reaches the asteroid is when the real nail-biting part of the mission begins.</p><p>It would be too tricky to land on the asteroid, so the space probe will reach out its 10-foot robotic arm to poke Bennu and capture just about 2 ounces of dust. After a two year journey, this sample collection will take <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0FxDxs7lyw">just five seconds</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">An artist's rendition of OSIRIS-REx collecting the dirt sample on Bennu.</p></div><p></p></div></div>OSIRIS-REx will store the sample for its return trip to Earth. In 2023, just the container holding the sample will re-enter the atmosphere and fall down to Earth, aided by a parachute. NASA expects it to land in Utah, and scientists can begin studying the sample. </p><p>This launch occurred exactly a week after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-exploded-falcon-9-2016-9">SpaceX's planned launch of a satellite for Facebook exploded</a> on the launch pad. Luckily, the explosion was at a location down the road from NASA's launch pad for the asteroid mission, so the agency didn't face any delays.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/osiris-rex-nasas-1-billion-mission-2016-9">NASA's next mission is collecting 'scientific treasure' that could answer one of life's greatest mysteries</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="p0YWdxNTE6TIm8aDSJ0WplDSlYxWrSjP" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

NASA successfully launches a nearly $1 billion mission to an asteroid millions of miles away

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/osiris-rex-approaches-bennu">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of OSIRIS-REx in orbit around asteroid Bennu.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>An asteroid-sampling NASA spacecraft with a dinosaur-like name is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-return-mission-launching-tonight-2016-9">scheduled to launch at 7:05 p.m. EDT</a> on Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.</p><p>If all goes according to plan, the 1.7-ton <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/about">OSIRIS-REx probe</a> - short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification-Regolith Explorer - will reach a dirty asteroid called Bennu in 2018, scoop up at least 2.1 ounces of grit, then bring the largest-ever deliberately collected sample of an asteroid back to Earth in 2023.</p><p>The cost of the feat? Roughly <a href="https://uanews.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/download-media/OSIRIS-REx%20FAQ.pdf">$800 million for the mission</a> (including the spacecraft), plus <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-selects-launch-services-contract-for-osiris-rex-mission/#.V9FrZRArJTY">$183.5 million for the Atlas V rocket launch</a> on Sept. 8, 2016 - a total of nearly $1 billion.</p><p>NASA and scientists all over the world believe it's well worth the cost and the wait, since <strong>the tiny sample could reveal how our solar system formed and help explain how life began on Earth</strong>.</p><h2>A dirty yet pristine asteroid</h2><p>Asteroids are like floating time capsules, since they're made of the same stuff present during the birth of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. The space rocks spawned out of a super-heated cloud of hydrogen, helium, and dust, forming before the first planets.</p><p>Aside from a handful that occasionally burn up in a planet's atmosphere or strike its surface, they've floated around ever since, lonely and cold in the void of space.</p><p>Some asteroids are also rich in water and carbon-based materials, and many astronomers think that when Jupiter formed, its massive gravity flung countless ones like this toward the sun.</p><p>They rained down on the inner planets and may have carried the ingredients of life to early Earth.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/bennus-journey">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">Artist's impression of early Earth being bombarded with asteroids.</p></div><p></p></div></div>If scientists can capture a <a href="https://uanews.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/download-media/OSIRIS-REx%20FAQ.pdf">pristine piece</a> of a dirty asteroid in space - one that's untarnished by a blazing-hot reentry to Earth in a thud in our dirt - they'd get a chance to analyze it and see how strong this hypothesis is.</p><p>According to NASA, Bennu (the asteroid formerly known as "1999 RQ36") is one such dirty asteroid in near-Earth orbit, or <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/bennus-journey">within about 121 million miles</a> of our planet. While this is closer than most asteroids, but the spacecraft likely won't reach Bennu until 2018.</p><p>Once it arrives, OSIRIS-REx will first <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/otes-will-map-mineral-and-chemical-abundances">map the asteroid</a> in 3-D to locate the best sampling sites:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div></div></p><p>Next it will scoot up close to the asteroid, extend <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/tagsam-sample-return-arm">a long robotic arm</a> until it touches the surface, and then shoot out a blast of sterile nitrogen gas.</p><p>In the chaos of flying grit, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/content/osiris-rex-mission-operations">NASA says</a> hopes to collect at least one 60-gram (2.1-ounce) sample of carbon-laced asteroid rock - about a small bag of chips' worth of weight - in a cup-like sample container. However, the spacecraft is designed to gobble up to 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs) of dust and grit over three different attempts.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/osiris-rex-grabs-a-sample">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's concept of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft while sampling asteroid Bennu.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>After it bags some crucial samples, the probe will begin a long journey back to Earth starting in 2021 and land sometime in 2023.</p><p>Scientists will then spend at least 2 years subjecting the samples to variety of tests in hopes of learning what, exactly, the early solar system "tastes" like.</p><h2>A risky business</h2><p>This is assuming all goes according to plan, though.</p><p>As the world was recently reminded with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-reactions-rocket-explosion-2016-9">SpaceX's launchpad explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket</a>, putting expensive payloads atop stacks of fuel and oxidizer is a risky business.</p><p>Sample-return missions like OSIRIS-REx are also notoriously complex, given the many instruments and stages required to collect something in space and bring it back safely.</p><p>In fact, NASA has a limited recent track record of sample-return missions: <a href="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html">Stardust</a> and <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/missions/genesis/">Genesis</a>.</p><p>Stardust's comet-sampling mission mostly went off without a hitch. However, when the solar wind-sampling Genesis probe's payload returned to Earth in 2004, the landing did not go well - the <a href="https://twitter.com/coreyspowell/status/773797444798865409">sample capsule crashed into a Utah desert</a> because its parachutes didn't deploy.</p><p>However risky the mission may be, the time has come for OSIRIS-REx to launch.</p><p>Here's what the finished spacecraft looks like:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/space/photo/pressrelease/2015/OSIRIS%20HGA%20SolarArray%2010-12-15_005.jpg">Lockheed Martin</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>And here's what it now looks like now, cradled in the cone-shaped top of its 191-foot-tall Atlas V rocket ride:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Joel KowskyNASA</span></p><p class="caption">An Atlas V rocket in Cape Canaveral, Fla., which is capped by NASA's asteroid Bennu-bound OSIRIS-REx probe.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>This mission will also act as a stepping stone toward NASA's asteroid redirect mission, where the agency plans to rope an asteroid, tow it near Earth, and send astronauts to explore it.</p><p><em>Kelly Dickerson contributed to a previous version of this post.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-earth-could-die-asteroid-armageddon-2016-6">4 horrifying ways the Earth could die</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Zqd2E1NDE6nARld5iMkE-5fvBRxTj6lB" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Here's why NASA is risking nearly $1 billion to suck up 2.1 ounces of dirty asteroid

India reported 73,272 new coronavirus cases, taking the overall caseload to 69,79,423, while 59,88,822 people have recuperated so far, pushing the recovery rate to 85.81 percent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Saturday. The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 1,07,416 with 926 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. <br /><br />For the second day in a row, the number of active COVID-19 cases remained below 9 lakh. <br /><br />There are 8,83,185 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which make 12.65 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. <br /><br />The COVID-19 case fatality rate was recorded at 1.54 per cent. <br /><br />India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16 and crossed 60 lakh on September 28. <br /><br />According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (<keyword id="6364396" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICMR">ICMR</keyword>), a cumulative 8,57,98,698 samples have been tested up to October 9. As many as 11,64,018 samples were tested on Friday.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-cases-asteroid-bennu-ahead-of-snatch-and-grab-finds-six-new-secrets-including-a-possible-void-under-the-surface/slidelist/78577408.cms">NASA cases Asteroid Bennu ahead of snatch and grab — finds six new secrets, including a possible void under the surface</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/rbi-governor-wants-markets-to-keep-the-faith-but-traders-want-something-more/articleshow/78574663.cms">RBI Governor wants markets to keep the faith but traders want something more</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-beats-accenture-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-it-services-company/articleshow/78566487.cms"><strong>TCS beats Accenture to become the world’s most valuable IT services company — but this not the first time it has raced ahead</strong></a><br />

India's COVID-19 tally closes in on 7 million mark

Space 2021: All the Mars landings, eclipses, astronaut flights, rocket launches, and other big missions to look for this year

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> Administrator <keyword id="4956577" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jim-Bridenstine">Jim Bridenstine</keyword> said he will not lead the agency under the <keyword id="60973" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Biden">Biden</keyword> administration, <a href="https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/nasa-chief-plans-step-aside-under-biden">according to Aviation Week</a>.</li><li>Bridenstine told Aviation Week that NASA's next administrator should be someone with a "close relationship" to Biden, and he is not "the right person for that." </li></ul><p>NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he would not stay on as head of the agency under a Biden administration, even if asked by the president-elect.</p><p>Bridenstine, a Republican, represented Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District before President Donald Trump appointed him to NASA's top position. But he stressed that his plan to step down is not based on party affiliation. Rather, Bridenstine said, he would do so to ensure that the next leader of the agency could be someone with a longer-term relationship to Biden. </p><p>"The right question here is, 'What's in the best interest of NASA as an agency, and what's in the best interest of America's exploration program?'" Bridenstine told <a href="https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/nasa-chief-plans-step-aside-under-biden">Aviation Week.</a> "For that, what you need is somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the United States. You need somebody who is trusted by the administration. </p><p>"I think that I would not be the right person for that in a new administration," he added.</p><div type="image" title="nasa artemis moon astronaut spacesuit jim bridenstine" height="1386" width="1920" msid="79138995" hostid="261"></div><p>Since Trump tapped Bridenstine to lead NASA in April 2018, the agency announced its Artemis program, which now aims to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2024. The program also aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface by 2028. (The last time people walked on the moon <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/landing-missions/apollo17.cfm#:~:text=The%20Last%20Manned%20Lunar%20Landing&amp;text=Eugene%20Cernan%2C%20commander%20of%20Apollo,Moon%20since%20December%2014%2C%201972.972.">was in December 1972</a>.) </p><p>Bridenstine has also encouraged the development of commercial spaceflight in the US. During his tenure, SpaceX completed its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-crew-dragon-spaceship-nasa-astronauts-mission-landing-surprises-demo2-2020-8">first crewed mission in partnership with NASA</a> — the result of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which started under the Obama administration. The launch of Crew-1, the first routine SpaceX/NASA mission, is scheduled for this Saturday (the one over the summer was considered a demonstration).</p><p>Going forward, <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword>X and Boeing are expected to shuttle NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station at least eight times in total. Other private companies are also in competition to develop spacecraft that can land cargo and people on the lunar surface. </p><p>While helming NASA, Bridenstine has also overseen the launch of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-launch-2020-7">Mars Perseverance rover in July</a> and the Osiris-Rex spacecraft's successful touch-down and sample collection on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-bennu-is-hollow-spinning-to-death-2020-11">the asteroid Bennu</a>.</p><div type="image" title="mars rover sample return mission perseverance" height="1080" width="1920" msid="79138998" hostid="261"></div><p>Biden's priorities differ from Trump's in a few key ways, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-space-race/why-nasas-moonshot-boeing-bezos-and-musk-have-a-lot-riding-on-u-s-election-idUSKBN27F1C0">according to Reuters</a>. Biden will likely push back the Artemis mission's timeline by several years. He is also expected to propose extending US funding for the space station instead of handing control to private space companies by 2025, which the <keyword id="3798493" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump-administration">Trump administration</keyword> had planned to do.</p><p>Biden's administration will, however, probably continue to promote competition between companies like SpaceX and Boeing for spaceflight contracts.</p><p>The full details of Biden's agenda for NASA are not yet fully known. The president-elect <a href="https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/my-statement-on-the-passing-of-john-hume-973d45770241">wrote in August</a> that he hopes to lead "a bold space program that will continue to send astronaut heroes to expand our exploration and scientific frontiers." </p><p>Bridenstine said he's optimistic about the future of space exploration under Biden — particularly when it comes to sending astronauts to the moon. </p><p>"We are in a good position as a country. If you look at the bipartisan, apolitical support that we have from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle … there is strong support for Artemis," Bridenstine told Aviation Week. </p>

NASA chief Jim Bridenstine says it's in the 'best interest of NASA' for him to resign rather than work for the Biden administration

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Tonight, NASA will launch a rocket-fueled, minivan-sized spacecraft on a seven-year-journey through space - all for a pile of dirt. But this isn't just any dirt. This dirt could hold the key to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sampling-mission-2016-9">answering some of our biggest questions about the universe</a>, such as where we came from, and why we exist.<p>The mission: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/">OSIRIS-Rex</a>, the United States' first asteroid sample return mission ... ever. The destination: An asteroid named <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6880/bennu/">Bennu</a>, a cosmic time capsule of sorts that contains dusty, 4.5-billion-year old relics from the birth of our solar system. It will take the spacecraft two years to traverse the 120-mile-distance between Earth and Bennu.</p><p>But the road trip doesn't end there. When OSIRIS-Rex finally reaches Bennu in September 2019, it will pump the brakes and slow down to a leisurely 63,000-mile-per-hour tread to match the speed at which Bennu hurtles around the sun. After surveying the asteroid for a spell, the spacecraft will try to enter&#xa0;the 1,614-foot-wide hunk of rock's weak orbit.</p><p>At about the <a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/09/watch-nasa-launch-asteroid-sampling-spacecraft/">size of the Empire State Building</a>, Bennu will be the smallest object NASA has ever attempted to orbit. And it won't be easy because, well, gravity (smaller objects mean less gravity, which makes orbiting the objects pretty tricky).</p><p>During its mile-long orbit around Bennu, OSIRIS-Rex will snap pictures every two hours, which will be transmitted back to Earth to help NASA keep the spacecraft on course.</p><p>The spacecraft, equipped with a suite of scientific instruments, will also take measurements of the asteroid to map its surface in 3D and get information about its geology.</p><p>It will also scope out&#xa0;the best spot for the mission's primary goal: Gathering a scoop of spacedirt that scientists back on Earth will use to tell the story of the birth of our solar system.</p><p>After a year, the spacecraft will cozy up to the asteroid (it will be too dangerous to maneuver a landing) and slowly stretch out its 10-foot-long arm toward Bennu's dusty surface where it will capture a few breaths of the asteroid's dirt and store it away in a capsule.</p><p>Then OSIRIS-Rex will begin its journey back to Earth and in September 2023, it will parachute down in the Utah desert, carrying some of the most important samples ever gathered from space.</p><p>If OSIRIS-Rex succeeds, it will not only bring home the largest asteroid sample ever. It will bring home the largest sample collected since the Apollo missions to the moon. And just a couple ounces of this dirt and gravel could help us finally explain the origin of life on our planet.</p><p>The spacecraft is scheduled to launch out of Cape Canaveral between 7:05 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. ET. NASA's live coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET. You can <a href="https://www.ustream.tv/channel/6540154">check it out here</a> or below:</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/osiris-rex-nasas-1-billion-mission-2016-9">NASA's next mission is collecting 'scientific treasure' that could answer one of life's greatest mysteries</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="p0YWdxNTE6TIm8aDSJ0WplDSlYxWrSjP" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Tonight, NASA is launching a mission that could solve the mystery of life with just a few scoops of dirt

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/solar-system-space-objects-elements-this-346334663">Shutterstock</a></span></p><p class="caption">An artist's depiction of the solar system.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>NASA's New Frontiers program is a competition for scientists to get their space mission funded.</strong></li><li><strong>The winner, to be selected in 2019, will get funding and a rocket launch that are valued at a combined $1 billion.</strong></li><li><strong>On Wednesday, the space agency is revealing its top finalists.</strong></li><li><strong>The teams competing for the mission could look for signs of alien life at Enceladus, probe Venus, or chase asteroids.</strong></li></ul><p> </p><p>On Wednesday, NASA will unveil a handful of finalists competing for a billion-dollar space mission to explore the solar system.</p><p>Twelve teams of scientists submitted proposals to the contest, which is called New Frontiers-4 (since it's the fourth such competition held by NASA). A few of those 12 teams - perhaps just one, two, or three - will each receive $4 million next year to further develop and engineer their spacecraft concept.</p><p>The hope: Convince NASA by December 2018 that they're worth $850 million and a free rocket ride into the solar system, at a combined value of about $1 billion.</p><p>Previous missions selected by New Frontiers <a href="https://planetarymissions.nasa.gov/missions/new%20frontiers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">include</a> New Horizons, a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> probe that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pluto-subsurface-ocean-2016-12">flew by Pluto</a> in 2015 and is now going deeper into the Kuiper Belt; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sampling-mission-2016-9">OSIRIS-REx</a>, a robot that's flying out to meet asteroid Bennu and bring a sample of it back to Earth; and the Juno mission, which is looping around Jupiter, recording unprecedented data and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-jupiter-images-nasa-juno-perijove-9-2017-11">breathtaking images of the planet</a>.</p><p>The current list of 12 teams hasn't been publicized by NASA, but the groups are allowed to speak up on their own. The missions that are publicly known span a few categories for which the space agency requested missions. They include:</p><p><strong>Lunar missions</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/1326.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MoonRise</a></li></ul><p><strong>Venus missions</strong></p><ul><li>Venus In Situ Atmospheric and Geochemical Explorer (<a href="http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2017/EPSC2017-275-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visage</a>)</li><li>Venus In Situ Composition Investigations (<a href="http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2017/EPSC2017-346.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vici</a>)</li><li>Venus Origins Explorer (<a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/vexag2017/pdf/8031.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vox</a>)</li></ul><p><strong>Saturn missions</strong></p><ul><li>Enceladus Life Finder (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-mom-linda-spilker-why-nasa-should-go-back-saturn-2017-9/#the-enceladus-life-finder-5">Elf</a>)</li><li>Saturn Probe Interior and Atmosphere Explorer (<a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/IPPW-13_02_PR_12_SPRITE_Saturn_PRobe_Interior_and_aTmopshere_Explorer_A_Simon.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sprite</a>)</li><li>Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (Elsah)</li><li><a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/2306.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oceanus</a></li><li><a href="http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2017/170823.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dragonfly</a></li></ul><p><strong>Comet missions</strong></p><ul><li>Comet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return (Corsair)</li><li>Comet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (Condor)</li><li>An unnamed comet sample-return mission</li></ul><p>NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-name-finalists-for-future-solar-system-mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Frontiers announcement</a> at 2 p.m. ET, and we're dialing in to ask questions about the finalists. Check back for an update shortly after that.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-pacific-ocean-dead-satellites-2017-10">There's a place at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where hundreds of giant spacecraft go to die</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA is about to announce the finalists of its next $1 billion space mission

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>The Cassini spacecraft was destroyed at Saturn on Friday around 6:32 a.m. EDT.</strong></li><li><strong>It took more than an hour for the probe's last signal to reach antennas on Earth.</strong></li><li><strong>NASA's $3.26-billion mission was ended to prevent contaminating salty oceans of Saturn's moons - water that may harbor alien life.</strong></li><li><strong>The space agency is now reviewing a handful of proposals to return to Saturn and its moons.</strong></li></ul><p>With the crackle and fade of a signal beamed from 932 million miles away, NASA's 20-year Cassini mission at Saturn came to an end on Friday morning.</p><p>The bus-size Cassini probe began its descent into Saturn around 6:31 a.m. EDT, local time, while streaming unprecedented real-time measurements of the planet's atmosphere. The probe ramped up its thrusters to keep its antenna dish pointed toward Earth to send the data.</p><p>However, its connection with Earth didn't last much longer: The thrusters weren't designed to keep a spacecraft righted while plunging into Saturn at 78,000 mph.</p><p>Cassini began to tumble, breaking its last bond with Earth around 7:55 a.m. The signal was lost. And then the probe died.</p><p>It's unlikely that anyone saw it happen - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-death-will-it-be-visible-nasa-hubble-telescopes-2017-9">not even powerful telescopes</a> - but NASA surmises that its "faithful traveler from Earth" heated up to hundreds and then thousands of degrees, broke apart, disintegrated, and vaporized into a small, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-saturn-mission-death-plutonium-238-burn-up-2017-8">plutonium-laced meteor</a> that streaked above Saturn's clouds.</p><p><br>Before dying, Cassini's final communication traveled at light-speed from Saturn, taking just <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-cassini-will-be-destroyed-timeline-2017-9">over 1 hour 23 minutes</a> to pass through the void of space and reach Earth. Giant radio dishes in Australia picked up the signal&#xa0;and forwarded the data to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (the heart of the Cassini mission).</br></p><p>Silence fell over the control<span>&#xa0;room, which was full of Cassini's scientific stewards and their family members. Everyone stared at their screens.&#xa0;</span>When the feed of data stopped,&#xa0;people&#xa0;clapped, then hugged, and many could be heard crying.</p><p>"The signal from the spacecraft is gone, and so will be the spacecraft in the next 45 seconds," said Earl Maize, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who manages the Cassini mission, during a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-grand-finale-video-nasa-youtube-ustream-2017-9">live broadcast by NASA TV</a>. "This has been an incredible spacecraft, an incredible mission, and you're all an incredible team."</p><p>NASA could not&#xa0;confirm exactly what time Cassini met its doom, though the agency estimated it happened seconds to minutes after they lost touch with the probe.</p><p>One thing is clear, though: The space agency's $3.26-billion mission to explore Saturn is over.</p><p>"Thank you, Cassini, and farewell," Maize said during a press conference on Wednesday.</p><h2>Why NASA killed the Cassini probe</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Cassini left Earth with 6,900 lbs of propellant in its tanks. This allowed it to adjust its orbit around Saturn and visit one moon after the next, leading to astonishing discoveries.<p>The probe discovered six new moons, mysterious "propeller objects" in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-saturn-rings-image-cassini-2017-4">Saturn's rings</a>, documented a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saturn-hexagon-storm-images-2017-5">giant hexagon</a> swirling atop the planet's north pole, photographed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/incredible-pictures-of-lakes-on-saturns-moon-titan-2013-12">hydrocarbon lakes</a> on Titan (Saturn's largest moon), and found a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-water-ice-volume-versus-planets-moons-2016-11">vast ocean</a> of salty water - which may harbor alien life - below the icy crust of the moon <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-moon-enceladus-cassini-ocean-life-global-salty-nasa-2015-9">Enceladus</a>.</p><p>In 2010, Cassini had enough propellant left to either fly by Uranus or Neptune, or continue to explore Saturn and its moons.</p><p>If it had flown past one of those planets and shot out into space, Cassini would have had enough <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">plutonium-238 fuel</a> to keep its electricity running for decades - just like the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-probes-mission-history-farthest-movie-2018-08">Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes</a>, which launched 40 years ago and have left the solar system.</p><p>But with so many questions about Saturn still unanswered, NASA decided to keep Cassini in orbit there - and doom it to its fiery "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/cassini-grand-finale">Grand Finale</a>" death in September 2017. With less than 90 lbs of propellant left on Friday, the spacecraft plunged &#xa0;to its demise. The scientists chose to kill the probe this way to avoid the&#xa0;risk that it could run out of fuel and crash into one of Saturn's&#xa0;potentially life-fostering moons.&#xa0;</p><p>"Because of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-planetary-protection-officer-job-opening-2017-7">planetary protection</a>, and our desire to go back to Enceladus, and go back to Titan," Jim Green, the leader of NASA's planetary <keyword id="41551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> program, said during a Wednesday press briefing, "we must protect those bodies for future exploration."</p><p><br>Extending the mission at Saturn helped Cassini's controllers to pile on discovery after discovery.</br></p><p>The probe had discovered jets of water shooting out of Enceladus in 2005. This was astonishing enough, but the extension allowed Cassini to "taste" the spray, confirming the moon hides a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-moon-enceladus-cassini-ocean-life-global-salty-nasa-2015-9">salty ocean</a> below its ice-encrusted surface. Cassini also learned that Titan, too, may harbor its own <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/water-space-volume-planets-moons-2016-10">habitable, subsurface seas</a>.</p><p>"To find that there's an ocean world so tiny with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saturn-encealdus-hydrothermal-vent-aliens-2017-4">a possibility of life</a>, so far from the sun - 10 times farther from the sun than the Earth - has opened up our paradigm of where you might look for life," <a href="https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Spilker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Linda Spilker</a>, a Cassini project scientist and planetary scientist at NASA's JPL, said of Enceladus on Wednesday, "both within our own solar system and in the exoplanet systems beyond."</p><h2>Will there be a Cassini 2.0?</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Cassini is now dust falling through Saturn's clouds, and NASA has no other spacecraft there to study the planet, its rings, and fleet of moons.</p><p>But NASA is itching to fuel up more nuclear batteries, build a new spacecraft, and return to the planetary system.</p><p>"The observations by Cassini have been so remarkable for Enceladus and Titan, that ... we announced the inclusion of those two objects in our focused science program called <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2017/05/05/nasa-receives-proposals-for-future-solar-system-mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New Frontiers</a>," Green said on Wednesday. "Those proposals are in and currently under evaluation, and they do indeed include proposals to go back to Titan and Enceladus. We'll look through this competition and see what happens."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>New Frontiers has produced missions like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pluto-tail-new-horizons-comet-planet-hybrid-2016-5">New Horizons</a>, which flew by Pluto (and is on its way into the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/number-dwarf-planets-solar-system-2017-3">Kuiper Belt</a>); <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/latest-jupiter-pictures-nasa-juno-2017-7">Juno</a>, which is currently orbiting Jupiter; and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sampling-mission-2016-9">OSIRIS-REx</a>, a probe designed to suck up bits of Asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return that sample to Earth in 2023.<p>Spilker wrote and submitted one of the latest New Frontiers proposals with <a href="https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/people/m_cable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Morgan Cable</a>, a fellow Cassini scientist. If approved, they'll get about $800 million, nuclear power supplies, and a rocket to make their mission happen.</p><p>"We've put together a proposal ... to go back to Enceladus with the kinds of instruments that you would need to address the questions about the habitability and 'is there life in the ocean of Enceladus?' The mission's called Enceladus Life Finder," Spilker told Business Insider.</p><p>She'll find out in December whether or not the proposal made the first cut, and gets a year to more deeply study and flesh out a mission plan. There are 11 competing proposals, about half of which also propose a return to Saturn.</p><p>"Certainly if my mission doesn't get selected, then I will be rooting for a mission to go back to the Saturn system," Spilker said. "Because as Cassini ends, part of me is saying 'I need to go back.'"</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:43%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:57%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/5-biggest-discoveries-nasa-saturn-cassini-huygens-2017-5">The 5 biggest discoveries from NASA's Cassini spacecraft that changed our view of space</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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