Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

OSIRIS-REx

Side-by-side images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft of the robotic arm as it descended towards the surface of asteroid Bennu (left) and as it tapped it to stir up dust and rock for sample collection (right). OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu at 6:08pm EDT on October 20, 2020. Credit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Side-by-side images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft of the robotic arm as it descended towards the surface of asteroid Bennu (left) and as it tapped it to stir up dust and rock for sample collection (right). OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu at 6:08pm EDT on October 20, 2020. Credit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx)

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. It returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, to drop off a capsule with material from asteroid Bennu. After dropping off the sample through Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029.

Overview

Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36). It collected a sample of rocks and dust from Bennu’s surface on October 20, 2020. 

The spacecraft delivered the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023 when it released a capsule with grains of Bennu over Earth’s atmosphere. The capsule parachuted to the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, where the OSIRIS-REx team was waiting to retrieve it.

Scientists hope the Bennu sample will reveal whether asteroids that collided with Earth billions of years ago thereby delivered water and other ingredients for life to our planet.

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