NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Prepares to Deliver Rare Asteroid Sample to Earth

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is set to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth on September 24, marking the agency’s first time collecting and returning such a sample. The mission, which has been seven years in the making, aims to provide insights into the formation of our solar system. The sample, collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, will be dropped off in the Utah desert after traveling nearly 2½ years across space. The capsule containing the sample will enter Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 27,650 miles per hour, protected by a heat shield. Parachutes will deploy to slow the descent, and recovery teams will retrieve the capsule once it is safe to do so. The sample will then be transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Scientists believe that studying the asteroid sample could reveal information about the formation and history of our solar system, as well as the role of asteroids in the development of habitable planets like Earth. The sample will be divided and sent to laboratories worldwide, with 70% being preserved for future generations to study with more advanced technology.