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In anticipation of the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample delivery this fall, the team last month held its first round of practice at retrieving the spacecraft's sample capsule from a simulated landing site at the Lockheed Martin campus near Denver. The real-life retrieval will take place Sep. 24 on the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range outside Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday it would issue a new stamp honoring the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission, praising the effort to return asteroid samples to Earth as something that "exemplifies American ingenuity, perseverance, and teamwork." The USPS will reveal the issue date and purchase locations soon.

University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta, who leads NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, talks about what they have gathered from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

The University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission is included in a list of the most exciting space missions of 2023.

The return to Earth by the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission ranks as a top space exploration mission in a roundup of upcoming astronomy and astrophysics projects.

The University of Arizona once again ranks among the nation's top public research universities, with $770 million in total research activity in fiscal year 2021, according to data released Thursday by the National Science Foundation. The university also retained its No. 1 ranking in astronomy and astrophysics expenditures at more than $113 million – more than $40 million ahead of the No. 2-ranked university.

The OSIRIS-REx NASA mission, which is spearheaded by scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, made history in 2020 when it successfully touched down on an asteroid named Bennu and collected a sample of rock to bring back to Earth for study. Now the spacecraft is being prepared for a second mission: to the near-Earth asteroid named Apophis. The extended mission has a new name, OSIRIS-APEX, and a new principal investigator, Dani DellaGiustina, who started out on the OSIRIS missions as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona's Daniella "Dani" DellaGiustina shot for the stars and has already landed among them. Today, the planetary scientist was named one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 – an annual list of early-career scientists and engineers who are developing innovative approaches to problems across a range of disciplines.

Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission led by the University of Arizona, kept surprising the mission team while the spacecraft studied the asteroid from a distance. The biggest surprise, however, came when OSIRIS-REx swooped in to grab a sample of material from Bennu and encountered not a solid surface but one that gave way so easily the sampler arm sank 1 1/2 feet into it within seconds.

Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona, kept surprising the mission team while the spacecraft studied the asteroid from a distance. The biggest surprise, however, came when OSIRIS-REx swooped in to grab a sample of material from Bennu and encountered not a solid surface but one that gave way so easily the sampler arm sank 1 1/2 feet into it within seconds.