
OSIRIS-REx
NASA asteroid sample return mission (2016-2023)

NASA asteroid sample return mission (2016-2023)
OSIRIS-REx was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid. The material, returned in September 2023, is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth. Following the completion of the primary OSIRIS-REx (Regolith Explorer) mission, the spacecraft, renamed as OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), began a follow-up mission to asteroid 99942 Apophis. OSIRIS-REx was launched on September 8, 2016, flew past Earth on 22 September 2017 and rendezvoused with Bennu on 3 December 2018. It spent the next two years analyzing the surface to find a suitable site from which to extract a sample. On 20 October 2020, OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu and successfully collected a sample. OSIRIS-REx left Bennu on 10 May 2021 and returned its sample to Earth...
Read on Wikipedia · Image National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin, Public domain
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