The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission team was selected to receive the 2022 John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration by the Space Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for space exploration and space-inspired industries. The award was presented on April 4 during the opening ceremony of the 37th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The award recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in the realm of space exploration and discovery and honors the memory of astronaut John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr., one of the inspirations for the creation of the Space Foundation.

"I am enormously grateful to the Space Foundation for this honor," said LPL Regents Professor Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission. "The OSIRIS-REx team represents the pinnacle of human achievement. Team members have diverse backgrounds, skillsets and expertise. Together, we overcame numerous challenges to successfully collect a massive sample from asteroid Bennu. The best times are ahead of us, and the team is busy preparing for the analysis of these scientific treasures from outer space."