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A NASA spacecraft zooming toward Earth is on track to fling a capsule the size of an automobile tire onto a Utah bombing range Sunday morning. Inside will be fragments of an asteroid that may contain clues about the origin of life.

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft swings by Earth on Sunday, it is expected to deliver a rare cosmic gift: a pristine sample collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

A NASA spacecraft will fly by Earth on Sunday and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu, closing out a seven-year quest. "I ask myself how many heart-pounding moments can you have in one lifetime because I feel like I might be hitting my limit," said the University of Arizona's Dante Lauretta, the mission’s lead scientist.

Brother Robert Macke, a Jesuit priest and research associate in the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, built a pycnometer, which measures and compares the density or specific gravity of liquids and solids, to test samples taken from the asteroid Bennu.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will rendezvous with Earth Sept. 24 to drop off the sample it collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020. After it burns through Earth's atmosphere, scientists will collect the capsule from a landing site about 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Though they aren't sure what they'll find within the canister, University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta and other mission managers aren't expecting microscopic aliens. "In terms of could it have biotic material, that's a vanishingly small probability," Lauretta said.

The final rehearsal for the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission takes place this week in Utah as a team from the university's Lunar and Planetary Lab, along with NASA and military specialists, prepare to collect samples from an asteroid after seven years of work.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will return its long-awaited sample of rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu one month from today. University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, discusses the obstacles that nearly thwarted the mission and explains the logistics involved in recovering the sample.

This guest column celebrates the excellence of the space sciences programs at the University of Arizona. It includes special praise for the university's role in the James Webb Space Telescope, OSIRIS-REx mission and the upcoming deployment of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The University of Arizona-backed OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will return its long-awaited sample of rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu next month. University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, explains the logistics involved in recovering the sample and how soon researchers will be able to examine the material OSIRIS-REx collected three years ago.

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivers its precious asteroid samples to Earth on Sept. 24, two University of Arizona researchers will be among the first to examine the scientific treasure trove. Professor of planetary sciences Thomas Zega and assistant professor of planetary sciences Pierre Haenecour from the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory are part of NASA’s "quick-look team," a small group of researchers assigned to conduct the first science on what the spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu. "I get goosebumps just thinking about how I will be among the first people in the world to actually see the sample — not just see it, but analyze it in detail," said Zega, who arrived at the university in 2011, the same year NASA approved the now-$1 billion asteroid sampling mission. "We will know ahead of even the science team what's in the sample."