Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx Team!

September 24, 2023, 9:30 a.m.

Dear Students and Colleagues,

Today, NASA’s University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission spacecraft completed its historic 7-year journey to Bennu and back, traveling billions of miles since its launch in September 2016 to obtain a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. That sample is now being retrieved from the Utah desert where the sample delivery capsule landed this morning. University Communications will post OSIRIS-REx stories throughout the day with updates.

This astonishing achievement – NASA’s first asteroid sample retrieval – has been the work of many here at the University of Arizona and at our partner organizations. But today is not the end of OSIRIS-REx’s impact. The sample will allow scientists in Tucson and around the world to pursue a diverse range of questions, including the origins of life, the formation of our solar system and much more.

What Comes Next

Tomorrow, the sample is expected to be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where scientists will curate the sample and begin initial examination. A portion of the sample is expected to arrive in Tucson as early as October.  Here, University researchers, including OSIRIS-REx’s principal investigator and Regents Professor, Dante Lauretta, as well as partners from around the world will be able to study the sample using sophisticated instruments in a facility designed with this type of research in mind.

The spacecraft itself will now continue its journey under a new mission called OSIRIS-APEX to investigate another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, with Assistant Professor Dani DellaGiustina serving as principal investigator. The mission’s extension is a testament to the team of hundreds from many organizations that has worked together for many years. The spacecraft performed incredibly well and it has enough fuel left to take on this new task.

Explore and Celebrate 

Whether this is the first time you are hearing of OSIRIS-REx or you have been following the mission for years, I encourage you to visit the University's mission website or the collection of OSIRIS-REx stories from University Communications to learn more. You also can watch NASA’s press conference with Dr. Lauretta, today at 2 p.m. (MST).

I also invite you to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment. Children’s Museum Tucson is hosting OSIRIS-REx Day today from 1-5 p.m., offering free admission and science activities facilitated by University students. Go behind the scenes with Dante Lauretta during the NASA Science Live online event this Tuesday, noon-1 p.m. You can find more ways to celebrate in a special edition of Lo Que Pasa, including how to build your own paper model spacecraft, print out the OSIRIS-REx coloring book, cook space science-themed recipes and more.  

OSIRIS-REx is many things – amazing science and engineering, exploration of our solar system, a beginning of decades of scientific discovery, and, for all of us, a reminder of what the University of Arizona community can do when we dream big.

Space is truly Wildcat Country. Congratulations to the entire OSIRIS-REx team, and Bear Down!

Robert C. Robbins, M.D.

President
The University of Arizona  

Learn More 

Check back at University Communications' collection of stories on OSIRIS-REx for the latest updates.

Watch the press conference at 2 p.m. with PI Dante Lauretta.  

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