Media Coverage

After nearly five years in space, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth with an abundance of rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu.

New images of Bennu's surface captured during the final flyover reveal dramatic changes to the sample site.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft completed its last flyover of Bennu yesterday. The mission team will have to wait a few more days to find out how the spacecraft changed the surface of Bennu when it grabbed a sample of the asteroid.

Since its launch in September 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has traveled billions of miles, mapped the surface of an asteroid in unprecedented detail, and made new scientific discoveries about near-Earth asteroids. Now, it's preparing to bring a piece of asteroid Bennu home.

Space experts are interviewed about what they hope to see from President Joe Biden's NASA priorities. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission and professor at the University of Arizona, hopes that the Biden Administration will maintain or increase funding for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. "This Directorate performs essential research to monitor and predict the effects of climate change, explore the Solar System, and survey the universe," he said. "Budgets over the past four years have been favorable, and this is one area of the U.S. federal government where science activities remain healthy. The amazing achievements of NASA science programs serve as shining examples of what we can do as a nation when we unite and focus on a common vision."

Fourteen years after its inception and 10 years after NASA officially made it a mission, the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission successfully surpassed its most treacherous and rewarding phase: sample collection. WIRED journalist Chris Wright details the ways in which the OSIRIS-REx team kept the sample from leaking out into space.

Fourteen years after its inception and 10 years after NASA officially made it a mission, the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission successfully surpassed its most treacherous and rewarding phase: sample collection.

NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu.

NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu. On Oct. 28, the mission team sent commands to the spacecraft, instructing it to close the capsule – marking the end of one of the most challenging phases of the mission.