U Scorpii is a recurrent nova which has been observed in outburst on 10 occasions , most recently in 2010 . We present near-infrared and optical spectroscopy of the 2010 outburst of U Sco . The reddening of U Sco is found to be E ( B - V ) = 0.14 \pm 0.12 , consistent with previous determinations , from simultaneous optical and near-IR observations . The spectra show the evolution of the line widths and profiles to be consistent with previous outbursts . Velocities are found to be up to 14000 kms ^ { -1 } in broad components and up to 1800 kms ^ { -1 } in narrow line components , which become visible around day 8 due to changes in the optical depth . From the spectra we derive a helium abundance of N ( He ) / N ( H ) = 0.073 \pm 0.031 from the most reliable lines available ; this is lower than most other estimates and indicates that the secondary is not helium-rich , as previous studies have suggested .