the mission control center as nasa spacecraft cyrus rex moved into position alongside the asteroid benu one hundred and thirty million kilometers from earth launched two years ago cyrus rex is mission is to map the giant space rock analyze its chemical make up and bring back some of its material for scientists to study it may reveal secrets about the formation of planets and the origins of life this is a dark asteroid that we have found and that we're going to hunt down we're going to orbit we're going to take a good look at it and we're going to bring back a sample this is a fantastic mission benu about five hundred meters in diameter is a remnant of the earliest material that coalesced billions of years ago to form the earth and other planets oh cyrus rex will study the asteroid at close range using mapping technology and spectroscope that provide information about what it's made of that phase of the mission will last more than a year then in twenty twenty the spacecraft will approach the new surface there's two additional maneuvers that we do the both match the asteroid spin rate and

benu is about the size of the empire state building. it could potenwially collide us over the next 200 years. seats a good idea to understand what it's doing upthere, whats orbit is. eventually the team would like to bring back a sample from benu, to do sophisticated laboratory tests here on the ground. but what's interesting is they already found the presence of water benu,t the good water, but inside claiz. so, william, if you'rethinking about extending out human rogennce into space, hyd and oxygen in water, that's rocket fuel. and so that could be a filatling n to the stars for us. and i'll leave it at that. >> braham: miles o'brien, as always, thank you so much. >> woodruff: tonight's brief but spectacur episode features franny choi, a poet whose work examines contemporary social issues. her first poetry collection is called "floating, brilliant, gone" and is availableow. >> there are only so many parallel universes that concern us. in one, he isn't dead, in another, you drink light with your hands all winter. a there niverse in whi

the mission control center as nasa spacecraft cyrus rex moved into position alongside the asteroid benu one hundred and thirty million kilometers from earth launched two years ago cyrus rex's mission is to map the giant space rock analyze its chemical make up and bring back some of its material for scientists to study it may reveal secrets about the formation of planets and the origins of life. this is a dark asteroid that we have found and that we're going to hunt down we're going to orbit we're going to take a good look at it and we're going to bring back a sample this is a fantastic mission benu about five hundred meters in diameter is a remnant of the earliest material that coalesced billions of years ago to form the earth and other planets oh cyrus rex will study the asteroid at close range using mapping technology and spectroscope that provide information about what it's made of that phase of the mission will last more than a year then in twenty twenty the spacecraft will approach the new surface there's two additional maneuvers that we do that both match the asteroid spin rate an

it closes within four miles of the astroid benu. the spacecraft will spend a year and a half studying the astroid before attempting to collect coil and rock samples and return to earth. >>> two, one -- >> and today, spacex deployed 64 satellites in one fell sboop wo. the falcon nine launched from santa barbara today. the mission illustrates the growing demand for small slights to support internet businesses and supply chain monitoring. minutes after the launch, the first stage landed on an unmanned ship in the pacific. it was previously launched and recovered on missions in may and august. that's also a record for spacex. reusability is a major goal. >>> now your accuweather forecast with sandhya patel. >> hi there, everyone. monday is off to a dry start. tuesday will look different. let me show you live doppler 7. we have quite a bit of cloud cover, a few sfringles not out of the question. most of this is not reaching the ground, just moisture up in the clouds, not coming down yet. that will be changing. a live look here, where the

the skyscraper sized asteroid called benu. livestream the hit today. >> you think of osiris, you think of obd from the wu tang. >>> marvel studios revealing a new poster for "captain marvel" and says the new trailer will be happening tonight during monday night football on espn. >>> and "ralph breaks the internet" remains in the top spot at the box office earning nearly $26 million. "the grinch" got nearly $18 million from its fourth week and "creed 2" brought in close to $17 million. >>> a christmas display caused panic in austin after a tribute to "national lampoon's christmas vacation" went wrong. >> ah! >> remember that scene there? >> yep. >> all right, some homeowners placed a dummy at the edge of the roof just like in that movie, right there. look at that picture. but one veteran, a good guy here, thought this dummy was a real person. his name is alfred norwood jr., not the dummy, the person. he tried to save the dummy, and when homeowners heard what happened, they felt bad and gave him a gift card for being such a good

going to take a good look at it and we're going to bring back a sample this is a fantastic mission benu about five hundred meters in diameter is a remnant of the earliest material that coalesced billions of years ago to form the earth and other planets oh cyrus rex will study the asteroid at close range using mapping technology and spectroscope so that provide information about what it's made of that phase of the mission will last more than a year then in twenty twenty the spacecraft will approach the new surface there are two additional maneuvers that we do that both match the asteroid spin rate and then put us on a trajectory where we go down towards the asteroid so we actually do take thrusters and push ourselves gently towards the asteroid an arm will reach out to touch its rocky face with a blast of nitrogen gas the contraption will collect some dust and rock that container will then be sealed and it was cyrus will speed back to earth ejecting its extraterrestrial cargo which will land by parachute in the utah desert in september two thousand and twenty three scientists hope their