Revealing the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample

The first asteroid sample collected in space by a U.S. spacecraft and brought to Earth is unveiled to the world at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

The science team from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission will provide results from an initial analysis of the sample, which landed on Sunday, Sept. 24, in the Utah desert. News conference participants include:

• NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
• Lori Glaze, NASA Planetary Directorate Science Division Director
• Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson
• Francis McCubbin, OSIRIS-REx Head Astromaterials curator, NASA Johnson
• Daniel Glavin, OSIRIS-REx sample analysis lead, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt

Scientists worldwide will study the bits of asteroid to gather clues about the origin of the solar system and how life may have begun on Earth.

Watch the moment OSIRIS-REx collected the sample in 2020: https://youtu.be/xj0O-fLSV7c

Get details on the mission and where it’s headed to next: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/osir...

Credit: NASA