LPL Spotlight Stories

First Look at Bennu Sample Reveals Carbon and Water

NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has returned a sample that scientists will study for decades to learn more about the formation of the solar system.
Spacecraft now know as OSIRIS-APEX departing earth

Tucson-born Asteroid Mission Keeps Flying

The moment the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released the capsule filled with rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu, Daniella DellaGiustina, assistant professor at Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, assumed command of the robotic probe.
Dante Lauretta (right), UArizona Regents Professor and OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, collects science data with NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin and NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford

A Gift from Space: UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx Mission Delivers Largest-ever Asteroid Sample to Earth

The delivery from the asteroid Bennu, seven years after the spacecraft launched, marks the end of the space-voyaging phase of the mission. Scientists will now study the rocks and dust to better understand the origins of life on Earth.

OSIRIS-REx's Successful Sample Delivery Marks the Start of Extended OSIRIS-APEX Mission

After dropping off its historic sample from asteroid Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is headed to its next target: another potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid, called Apophis.
Zarah Brown, a doctoral student at the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Take a Stroll Through the Solar System – on the UArizona Campus

Designed objects true to scale, 11 plaques have been installed across campus as part of of an outreach project to make space science accessible to people of all ages.
recovery team walks out onto the tarmac to the waiting helicopters

Preparing to Welcome an Asteroid Sample

On the morning of Aug. 29, outside a hangar on the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in the high mountain desert of central Utah, members of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample recovery team began a two-day "dress rehearsal" – their last opportunity to perfect procedures before the first extraterrestrial samples collected beyond the orbit of the moon are expected to land on Earth on Sept. 24.
Members of the sample curation team wheel the capsule into the cleanroom

OSIRIS-REx Team Completes Final Test Before Asteroid Sample Delivery

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will deliver a sample from asteroid Bennu to scientists waiting in the Utah desert on Sept. 24.
OSIRIS-REx mission principal investigator Dante Lauretta

Asteroid Sample Delivery to Launch Decades of Science

A University of Arizona-led NASA mission nearly 20 years in the making is finally reaching its end, but the scientific investigation is only beginning.
OSIRIS-REx team members practice getting a mock sample capsule packed for its helicopter flight

This Is How the First-Ever U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Will Unfold

Scientists are gearing up for a high-stakes finale to OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to snare a sample from an asteroid
The capsule used in the exercise is a full-scale replica of the one that is on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx Team Members Practice Recovering Asteroid Sample Capsule Bound for Earth

Everything must go smoothly when the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft releases its capsule with pristine asteroid material to land in the Utah desert in September.