Nasa will today reveal plans for a “major” new mission to explore the solar system.

The space agency is due to make the announcement on Thursday evening, revealing details about its latest research project.

It comes as Nasa confirmed moon rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts and subsequently locked away by for decades are to be examined by researchers. 

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2019-06-27T12:38:49.000Z

Here is the full story previewing the announcement:
 


2019-06-27T12:09:46.240Z

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of today’s “major” Nasa announcement.

Proceedings will commence at 4pm EDT (9PM BST) and will air on NASA Television, the agency’s website, Facebook Live, YouTube, Periscope and USTREAM.

NASA also will host a media teleconference at 5pm local time the same day with:

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
Curt Niebur, Lead Program Scientist for New Frontiers
Principal investigator of the selected mission

Hundreds of pounds of rocks and dirt taken from the lunar surface are stored at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, and Nasa lab workers are preparing to hand over some of the pristine samples to scientists for study.

Nine US research teams will get a chance to examine the geological treasures – brought back between 1969 and 1972 – over the next year.