NASA OSIRIS-REx Live Stream: When, Where To Watch Asteroid Bennu Sample Collection Mission

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is all set for its "Touch-And-Go," or TAG, sample collection mission of asteroid Bennu, and viewers will get to witness it live.

OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, will descend toward the asteroid in order to grab a sample of dust and rocks from Bennu's surface that would be sent to Earth for study. According to NASA, Lockheed Martin Space will manage the TAG maneuver Tuesday, with the spacecraft set to attempt to collect a sample at around 6:12 p.m. EDT.

NASA will broadcast the TAG maneuver on NASA Television and the agency's website starting at 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Those who are interested in witnessing the event can also opt to watch it via Space.com's live stream or get a play-by-play from OSIRIS-REx's official Twitter account.

This historic mission will be NASA's first ever attempt to collect samples from an asteroid, and the agency is keen on sharing the mission's moments with everyone back on Earth.

The events and social media activities surrounding the OSIRIS-REx mission began as early as Monday. NASA prepared a series of preview briefings by scientists working on the mission and tackling the mission's science, planetary defense against asteroids and more. Space enthusiasts also joined the conversation by tweeting their questions with the hashtag #ToBennuAndBack.

A detailed schedule of activities for Tuesday and Wednesday can be found on NASA's website.

Bennu is located more than 200 million miles from Earth and is about 1,650 feet across. It is part of a group of asteroids known to contain carbon-bearing organic molecules, which are essential ingredients for life, and minerals altered in the presence of water.

Bennu has a slight chance of potentially threatening Earth late in the next century as it has a 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting the planet in one of its close approaches. However, the chance is slim, and due to its size, the asteroid is not expected to cause major damage to the planet even if it does collide with Earth.

"We're not talking about an asteroid that could destroy the Earth," OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, told Space.com in 2016. "We're not anywhere near that kind of energy for an impact."

The OSIRIS-REx mission aims to unlock more answers about how life on Earth began by looking into the components that make up the famous asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx was built by Lockheed Martin Space and is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. It is managed by the space agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.