NASA · sample return active
OSIRIS-REx / OSIRIS-APEX
OSIRIS-REx brought a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth in 2023; renamed OSIRIS-APEX, it is now heading for asteroid Apophis.
- Launch
- 8 September 2016
- Distance from Earth today
- 90.12 million km0.602 AU · light: 5 min 1 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 148.0 million km0.990 AU
Live distance from Earth and chart →
Trajectory
Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -64) every 5 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.
Mission timeline
- Launch on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral
- Arrival at asteroid Bennu
- Touch-and-go sample collection on Bennu
- Departure from Bennu toward Earth
- Sample capsule lands on Earth
- Spacecraft retargeted to Apophis as OSIRIS-APEX
- Planned arrival at Apophis just after its close pass by Earth
About the mission
OSIRIS-REx spent almost two and a half years at Bennu, a small carbon-rich asteroid, mapping it in detail before briefly touching its surface in October 2020. The loose, rubble-like ground offered almost no resistance, and the collection head came back overfilled. In September 2023 the capsule landed in the Utah desert, delivering NASA's first asteroid sample, which contains water-bearing minerals and organic compounds. The spacecraft itself was sent on as OSIRIS-APEX to rendezvous with Apophis in 2029, shortly after that asteroid passes unusually close to Earth.