The spacecraft launched on September 8, 2016 on the Atlas V 411 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The gravity assist
The first image NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft took after completing its Earth Gravity assist maneuver.
NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
One of its first major maneuvers was to whip around Earth in what's called a gravity assist. Earth's gravity acts like a slingshot, propelling the spacecraft forward toward its distant target, the asteroid Bennu.
Orbiting Bennu
This image was captured by OSIRIS-REx's MapCam imager as the spacecraft flew under Bennu's south pole during the mission's Preliminary Survey of the asteroid.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx collects a sample from the rocky surface of the asteroid Bennu
NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
In 2020, the spacecraft closed in on its target and scooped up a huge amount of regolith, the dust and dirt from Bennu's rocky surface.
A boulder-filled surface
This artist's concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with the Touch-And-Go Sample Arm Mechanism or TAGSAM.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
This was one of the most critical and dangerous moments for OSIRIS because the asteroid's terrain was rockier than researchers expected, and the boulders could have meant a rough landing.
OSIRIS-REx makes contact
Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator, called the moment OSIRIS landed "transcendental." In the end, the spacecraft safely escaped Bennu's surface with its prize.
A nerve-wracking leak
Three images show some particles escaping NASA's OSIRIS-REx sampler head.
NASA
Things nearly went awry when the container didn't close properly and dust started leaking out. Luckily, the spaceship's controllers acted quickly to safely seal the sample in a capsule. Ultimately, NASA estimates OSIRIS returned with about 8.8 ounces, or about half a pound, of dirt.
A fly-by delivery
As part of a training mission, NASA used a model of the OSIRIS-REx sample to prepare for its retrieval.
NASA/Keegan Barber
After collecting the largest asteroid sample ever brought to Earth, OSIRIS began its long journey home.
On September 24, 2023, it flew by Earth and delivered the asteroid sample to the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.
Sample retrieval
Recovery team members gather around a capsule containing Bennu asteroid samples as part of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool
Recovery teams collected the sample from the desert. Some of the sample will be spliced and diced immediately, but some of it will be preserved for future generations of scientists to analyze for centuries to come.
Headed to Houston
A shipping container with the capsule of asteroid Bennu's sample traveled onboard a US Air Force C-17 aircraft to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA/ Molly Wasser
The sample is now at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
"The asteroid sample poses no risk to Earth," according to NASA. "Bennu is an irradiated rock, and there is no chance that the sample could contain living organisms."
Analyzing the sample
Lockheed Martin recovery specialists Levi Hanish and Michael Kaye take the lid off NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample.
NASA/Robert Markowiz
It will spend several weeks in a clean room before the regolith is sent to scientists all over the world.
"Those samples will be analyzed in the weeks, months, years, decades, really centuries to come," Noah Petro, a research space scientist with NASA, told Insider.
Why Bennu?
This image shows a view across asteroid Bennu's southern hemisphere, demonstrating the number and distribution of boulders across the surface.
NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Because Bennu is so old, scientists are hoping studying its dust will give us clues about how our solar system formed and help determine if asteroids carry the key chemicals that ultimately helped lead to the rise of life on Earth.
What's next for OSIRIS?
OSIRIS-REx has only just begun to explore our solar neighborhood.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
OSIRIS's mission isn't over. It's headed to orbit another asteroid, Apophis, which it will reach in 2029.
