OSIRIS-REx

Mission Profile

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) is NASA's asteroid sample return mission launched on 8 September 2016 aboard an Atlas V 411 to study and sample the carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu. After two years of detailed surface characterization, OSIRIS-REx executed a Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) contact on 20 October 2020, collecting at least 60 grams (and likely 250 grams) of pristine surface material. The sample capsule was successfully returned to Earth on 24 September 2023, delivering the largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth and providing a window into the composition of the early solar system. The spacecraft, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, continued to asteroid 99942 Apophis for an extended mission to arrive during its 2029 Earth flyby.