Nasa's Osiris-rex Mission: asteroid sample reaches home | NASA Press Release

The first asteroid sample collected in space and brought to Earth by the United States will be unveiled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday, Oct. 11, and media accreditation is now open.

NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT for the reveal, which will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

During the event, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) science team will discuss an initial analysis of the sample, which is expected to land on Sunday, Sept. 24, in the Utah desert.

After the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft enters Earth’s atmosphere and safely lands, NASA experts will collect the rocks and dust retrieved from the asteroid Bennu inside the capsule, and bring the sample to NASA Johnson for examination in a pristine curation facility.

News conference participants include:

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
Francis McCubbin, OSIRIS-REx deputy curation lead, NASA Johnson
Daniel Glavin, OSIRIS-REx sample analysis lead, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt
Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson
This event has limited availability due to space in the facility. U.S. and international media interested in attending must request participation in advance. The deadline for U.S. media is 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, and 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, for international media. Credential media can request accreditation by contacting the NASA Johnson newsroom at: 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. Selected participants will receive additional information after they register. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

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