OSIRIS-REx is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least 60 g from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid, and return the sample to Earth for a detailed analysis. 

Jun 28, 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY M23-081

NASA Offers Media Interviews in Utah on Asteroid Sample Return

Artist's concept of the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule following its landing via parachute in the Utah desert.

Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

NASA invites media to the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground about 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City on Thursday, July 20, before the agency’s first asteroid sample collected in space is returned to Earth.

TechCrunch

NASA's OSIRIS-REx just snatched a rock sample from asteroid Bennu | TechCrunch

collectSPACE.com

To Bennu and back: OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launches | collectSPACE

The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission, and will arrive via parachute to the Utah desert on Sept. 24.

NASA Solar System Exploration

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Poster | NASA Solar System Exploration

• Media will have the opportunity July 20 to interview the researchers who provided essential technology that helped OSIRIS-REx capture and store the Bennu sample, as well as learn why NASA selected the Utah desert as the mission’s landing site.
• The mission team also will discuss OSIRIS-REx’s landing and recovery operations. 
• Activities for media include a clean room facility tour and viewing the sample return capsule training model.

NASA

NASA Invites Media to Cover Asteroid Sample Return, Logistics Call | NASA

The event is open to U.S. media, who must register online by 5 p.m. MDT on Friday, July 7, for consideration to participate. Check-in at Dugway Proving Ground will be at 8 a.m. on the day of the event.

• NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. 
• Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing. 
• Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. 
• Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. 
• Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrives on Earth, will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission.

Twitter

NASA's OSIRIS-REx on Twitter: "How will I return my sample of asteroid Bennu? 7 years from today, my

OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

-end-

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1275 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov⁠

Rani Gran / Rob Garner
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-332-6975 / 301-286-5687
rani.c.gran@nasa.gov / rob.garner@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Jun 28, 2023

HT Tech

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission: First Asteroid Sample return started | Tech News

NASA dropping ‘scientific time capsule’ from beginning of solar system into Utah desert

OSIRIS-REx will land Sept. 24 at the Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway

By Gabrielle Shiozawa, KSL.com

 Jul 22, 2023, 11:33am PDT

The most dangerous asteroid in the solar system is coming to Earth this fall — a piece of it, at least — as part of NASA's first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid will make its landing in the Utah desert. OSIRIS-REx will land Sept. 24 at the Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway.

Analyzing the sample from the asteroid Bennu, estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, will help scientists understand the origin of life in the universe.
"It's a scientific time capsule from the very beginning of our solar system," University of Arizona principal investigator Dante Lauretta said of Bennu. "It's older than the earth, and it really tells us about where we came from."

Members of the media on Thursday were invited to visit the Dugway Proving Ground, located around 85 miles west of Salt Lake City, to learn about the significance of the asteroid sample collection and the preparation that has gone into it. 

Experts came to the site from NASA, Lockheed Martin, University of Arizona, Utah State University and the Utah Test and Training Range.

Military installations at Dugway Proving Grounds are pictured on Thursday. 

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Why Utah?

• This isn't the first time the Utah Test and Training Range has been used as a landing site. 
• NASA's Stardust and Genesis missions both brought pieces of comets back to the Utah desert.

Scott Dixon, public affairs specialist at Dugway, said the proving ground was founded in 1942 in response to the need for higher defense shown by the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. 

• It's about the same square mileage as Rhode Island, and far from populated areas, making it the perfect place to test biochemical weapons to improve the nation's defense — but also making it the perfect place to land space equipment.
• "Utah's becoming the place to drop capsules from outer space in the United States," Lauretta said.

Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager, added that this is just another example of the United States government using its resources to best serve its country. 

NASA

OSIRIS-REx | NASA

• "This is huge for Utah," said Lindsay Carl, the Utah Test and Training Range range control officer.

Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx principal investigator from the University of Arizona, poses at Dugway Proving Grounds on Thursday.

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

What’s next?

The aircraft used for OSIRIS-REx isn't done yet.

•  It will drop off its capsule Sept. 24 without landing, then embark on mission OSIRIS-APEX to explore the asteroid Apophis. 
• The OSIRIS-REx mission also marks a unique turning point for NASA, as it entails many firsts for the agency, Lauretta said. 
• Along with collecting the United States' first asteroid sample, this mission has included a new level of contamination control and better documentation of samples that he said will "become the agency standard moving forward."

Lauretta said the contamination protocol and biosphere interaction policies learned from OSIRIS-Rex will be influential in an upcoming sample mission to Mars.

"Sample return is kind of the way we're going to explore the solar system in the future, and a lot of what we've done on OSIRIS-REx is going to be a pathfinder for future missions," Lauretta said.

A box that will transport asteroid samples collected by OSIRIS-REx is pictured at Dugway Proving Grounds on Thursday, July 20, 2023. 

NASA and military personnel are preparing for the Sept. 24 reentry of the sample return capsule from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which collected samples from the asteroid Bennu. 

• After the capsule touches down in the remote Utah desert, the samples will be unloaded at Dugway before being transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston inside this box."

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News