NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is set to return the first U.S. asteroid sample to Earth in September after a successful mockup drop test in Utah's West Desert. A team led by NASA in Utah’s West Desert is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of the first U.S. asteroid sample – slated to lan
A training model of the sample return capsule is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under a parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range.
Now, with less than four weeks until the spacecraft’s arrival, the OSIRIS-REx team is nearing the end of rehearsals and ready for the actual delivery. The capsule is carrying an estimated 8.8 ounces of rocky material collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in 2020. Researchers will study the sample in the coming years to learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.
, traveling about 27,650 mph. NASA’s live coverage of the capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT , and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and“We are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey, and it feels very much like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of emotions like pride and joy coexisting with a determined focus to complete the race well,” said Rich Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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