Which NASA mission returned samples from asteroid Bennu?

Which NASA mission returned samples from asteroid Bennu? OSIRIS-REx. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx collected rocks and dust from Bennu and returned them to Earth in September 2023.

The spacecraft launched in 2016 and reached Bennu in December 2018. After carefully surveying the asteroid, it performed a brief “touch-and-go” maneuver on October 20, 2020, using a sampling arm to disturb the surface and capture material.

The sample capsule landed in Utah on September 24, 2023. Its contents include ancient, carbon-rich material that may preserve clues about the early Solar System and the chemistry involved in the origins of life. OSIRIS-REx was NASA’s first U.S. asteroid sample-return mission.

The name is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. After releasing its capsule, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and redirected toward asteroid Apophis. Psyche is a separate NASA mission, while Lucy explores Trojan asteroids and Dawn visited Vesta and Ceres.