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Members of NASA's UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission completed one last dress rehersal before the spacecraft delivers a sample from asteroid Bennu to the Utah desert on Sept. 24.

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivers a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, it will launch decades of scientific investigation. Mission principal investigator Dante Lauretta is most excited to shed light on the origins of life on Earth.

Everything must go smoothly when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releases its capsule full of pristine asteroid material over the Utah desert in September. Members of the mission team gathered at Lockheed Martin in Colorado to rehearse recovering the capsule and its precious cargo.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is cruising back to Earth with the sample it collected from asteroid Bennu's rocky surface in 2020. When the sample capsule parachutes down into the Utah desert on Sept. 24, the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission will become the first U.S. mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth.

University of Arizona space sciences activities generate more than $560 million every year for the local economy, according to an economic impact report delivered by Rounds Consulting Group.

NASA awarded nearly $3 million to the University of Arizona Kuiper Materials Imaging and Characterization Facility to support OSIRIS-REx sample science and much more.

From exploring the deepest corners of the universe to reimagining urban heat resilience, University of Arizona expertise in several disciplines generated international headlines in 2022.

Dani DellaGiustina, deputy principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission and principal investigator for OSIRIS-APEX, was named to the list for her work to understand the solar system's past, present and future.

Before-and-after data from the few seconds it took the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect a sample from asteroid Bennu revealed a surprise: The particles of Bennu's exterior are so loosely packed, they act more like a fluid than a solid.

Lauretta is principal investigator of the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission, NASA's premier mission to visit a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid and bring back a sample.

The extended UArizona-led mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, will study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which is expected to have a close encounter with Earth in 2029.

The award recognizes the team behind the mission's successful collection of a pristine asteroid sample for laying "the groundwork for forging the next generation of scientists, astronomers, geologists and more."