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OSIRIS-REX ASTEROID SAMPLE-RETURN MISSION COMES BACK TO EARTH, Sept 24, 2023, Utah (NASA TV begins 10:00 am ET)

Update, September 19:  The canister will land at 10:55 am ET on September 24.

In addition to live coverage of the landing beginning at 10:00 am ET, NASA has announced additional events: a pre-landing media briefing on September 22 at 3:00 pm ET, a post-landing news conference on September 24 at 5:00 pm ET (3:00 pm Mountain Time), and the U.S. Postal Service will issue a new stamp.

Update, August 30:  During a pre-landing press conference today, NASA said its coverage will begin at 10:00 am EDT.

Original Entry: NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will complete its primary mission on September 24, 2023 when a capsule containing samples of the asteroid Bennu separates from the spacecraft, reenters Earth’s atmosphere, and lands at the Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range in the Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah.

The samples were collected in October 2020. It has taken this long for the spacecraft to make the journey back home.

NASA has a webpage explaining how the samples will be recovered.

The rest of the spacecraft will remain in space and has been assigned a second mission — to study the asteroid Apophis when it makes a close pass of Earth in 2029. NASA calls that new part of the mission OSIRIS-APEX.

Details

Date:
September 24, 2023
Time:
2:00 am - 11:00 pm