>>ERIN: Can you see my smile?! I feel like a little kid. I was
just like grinning so wide I thought my face would crack.
[logo musical sting] >>KATRINA: I’m Katrina Jackson from NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center, and I’m here today at the Kennedy
Space Center to watch the launch of our newest planetary science
mission, OSIRIS-REx, which will study near-Earth asteroid Bennu
and return a sample to Earth. The spacecraft is launching
onboard an Atlas V rocket, and I know I’m excited to see my first
rocket launch, so I’m curious to see how folks here are feeling
about watching this new mission get off the ground. [drums,
music] >>KATRINA: Jerushah, is this your first rocket launch?
>>JERUSHAH: It is, and I’m very excited about it. >>ASHLEY: This
is my first time here and my first launch. >>BRETT: It is my
first time, launching a rocket. Well I’m not launching it, but
other people are, but I’m watching it. >>ERIN: No, it’s
actually my second, my first one was SpaceX CRS-7. >>JASON: No,
this is actually the fourth rocket launch I’ve seen here.
>>DANIEL: Actually I’ve been to several. I’ve been to probably
25 different rocket launches, from Space Shuttle, to Deltas,
SpaceX missions, so this is another one to add to the belt
for me. >>KATRINA: And what makes you excited about watching
a rocket launch? >>ASHLEY: What doesn’t make you excited about
watching a rocket launch?! I hear that you’re going to feel
the shockwaves and the soundwaves. >>ERIN: It’s just
the feeling, right? Like seeing it, alright, there’s a small
speck out there. And then being able to witness it is a very
visceral event where you feel the ground shaking and you
almost can taste it. I don’t know, it’s the most amazing
thing I’ve ever seen. >>JASON: I love rockets. I love space
exploration, I love what NASA’s doing, and of course there’s
nothing more amazing than watching a rocket take off.
>>JERUSHAH: I expect it to be a very emotional experience. You
know to see a rocket actually go up into space to go to an
asteroid, it’s the first time we’ve done this. So I expect it
to be emotional and just awe-inspiring, you know as what
we can do as human beings when we actually put our minds to it.
>>DANIEL: Once you see it, it will live with you for the rest
of your life. There’s no other way to say it. From hearing the
sound, from feeling the power of the rockets, and just overall
you really grasp what NASA is doing. By sending a rocket into
space, I mean it literally is rocket science, they’re doing
phenomenal things. >>KATRINA: Where did you get your suit
here? >>ASHLEY: I got this at the Visitor Center gift shop.
It’s awesome. >>KATRINA: Well I think I should get myself one of
those, one of these days. >>ASHLEY: They come in blue too,
but orange, gotta go with the orange. >>KATRINA: Why do you
think this is so monumental for space exploration? >>BRETT:
Well, there’s going to be a lot learned. I think when we can get
material from an asteroid back on Earth and study it properly
here on Earth, that’s going to be much more effective than
sending a probe out there that has limited instruments and
trying to study it out there. >>JERUSHAH: The fact that we are
going to an asteroid for the first time and actually taking a
sample and bringing it back home, you know, so that itself
is just amazingly exciting, it’s what are we going to learn from
this sample? >>YINAN: Asteroid Bennu is a carbonaceous
asteroid, and so it could contain amino acids and organic
compounds that we haven’t seen before based on other smaller
pieces of meteorites. >>DANIEL: I mean we’re going to learn a
lot about asteroids, where they come from, who we are. There are
a lot of questions that are going to be answered, and I’m
sure there’s going to be a lot of things that we’re still going
to question after this. >>KATRINA: How has your
experience at Kennedy been so far? >>YINAN: Fantastic. It’s
like, NASA Social has given us such access to all the
scientists, and even the administrator of NASA Charlie
Bolden, so it’s amazing. >>DANIEL: It’s a phenomenal
experience. I cannot say enough about NASA Social and what they
have given us opportunities-wise. >>ASHLEY:
I’ve really had a great time at NASA over the past couple of
days. I’m an artist, so I’m definitely going to incorporate
my experience here in some future work. >>KATRINA: Good
luck with watching the launch, and maybe we’ll check back with
you afterwards. >>LAUNCH COVERAGE VOICES: Status check.
Go Atlas. Go Centaur. Go OSIRIS-REx. Everyone is go.
Standing by for launch. Ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven.
Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. And liftoff of OSIRIS-REx.
Its seven year mission, to boldly go to the asteroid Bennu
and back. >>ASHLEY: The rocket just like, you could see it
lifting off and all the smoke, and then a couple seconds later
you could hear the sound roll in toward you and it got louder and
louder, it was awesome. >>ERIN: It’s like so bright. The
brightness just gets me. There’s just no other white light like
that. And the, like when the bass gets to you, when the sound
rushes up, oh my god, I just want to cry, it’s just magical.
I think everyone needs to see that to put a lot of things in
perspective. [rocket sounds] >>LAUNCH VOICES: And the Atlas
rocket carrying OSIRIS-REx has gone supersonic. Standing by to
pass the max-Q [audience cheering] >>ASHLEY: Um, I was
like really sweaty, and excited, and I’m not even on this
mission, but I’m just so invested in it at this point. So
like watching it go up I was just like “Ahh” and it makes you
feel so small. >>ERIN: I feel like a little kid! I was just
like grinning so wide I thought my face would crack. It’s
amazing! I don’t know what to say! [audience cheering]
[background launch voices] [drums, music] >>KATRINA: Now
that OSIRIS-REx has safely made its way to space, I’m sure many
of the team members are going to take a well-deserved rest
tonight and settle in for the spacecraft’s two-year cruise to
asteroid Bennu. Meanwhile, you can follow the mission’s
online at nasa.gov/osiris-rex and on Twitter @OSIRISREx and
with the hashtag #ToBennuAndBack. OSIRIS-REx will
swing by Earth for a gravity assist next September, will
reach Bennu in August 2018, will collect a sample in July of
2020, and will return to Earth in September of 2023, so it’s
going to be a long and exciting ride, and we are excited to have
all of you along for the journey. [satellite whooshes by,
beeps] [sound fades out]