Liftoff! OSIRIS-REx Heading for Bennu

Liftoff! The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is climbing toward space with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on a mission to boldly go to the asteroid Bennu — and back.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, will return to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, with material from asteroid Bennu. When it arrives, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will release the sample capsule for a safe landing in the Utah desert. The pristine material from Bennu – rocks and dust collected from the asteroid’s surface in 2020 – will offer generations of scientists a window into the time when the Sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago. Learn more about the OSIRIS-REx mission.