OSIRIS REx

NASA's OSIRIS-REx has begun to pay dividends as the space agency releases the first results of the sample return mission from the asteroid Bennu, showing the presence of a high carbon content and water – the primary building blocks of life.

After a two-and-a-half-year astral trek and seven years since lift off, asteroid samples from NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer OS(IRIS-REx) have been brought down to Earth.

In October 2020, NASA’s OSRISIS-REx spacecraft made history by touching down on the asteroid Bennu and grabbing a sample of rock and debris. New analysis of this encounter has revealed the probe was lucky to avoid sinking into the asteroid's surface.

A history-making NASA spacecraft has just received a new lease on life. OSIRIS-REx, which is currently on its way back to Earth with rock samples from asteroid Bennu, will now have its mission extended to visit another asteroid, Apophis.

NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) robotic deep-space probe is returning from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, beginning its 2.5-year journey to Earth laden with samples.

NASA has set the timeline for the return of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which will carry samples from the asteroid Bennu for analysis back on Earth. Prior to making the journey, the probe will conduct a final flyby of the wandering solar system body.

It's been remarkable year for space exploration, marked by a line up of ambitious new interplanetary missions, industry firsts, and the reemergence of the US in the field of human spaceflight.

NASA has successfully stowed the leaking sampler head containing material from the asteroid Bennu inside the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule after its collection attempt proved a little too successful.

Images returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid explorer have confirmed that the spacecraft's sample collector head is slowly leaking some of the material it gathered from the surface of the asteroid Bennu, but it's not all bad news.

On Tuesday this week, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of asteroid Bennu to snatch a sample of the ancient pristine rock, and took off again. And now NASA has released images and video from the robot’s perspective.

In a truly remarkable feat of engineering, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has scooped a sample of soil from the surface of asteroid Bennu, as it hurtles through space some 205 million miles from Earth.

New findings from NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe of asteroid Bennu's gravity field suggest that the core is less dense than the outside shell, and possibly contains a large void – which could spell its doom in the not-too-distant future.