Jump to navigation

The University of Arizona Wordmark Line Logo White
Resources
  • Campus Map
  • UAccess
  • A-Z
  • Directory / Phonebook
  • UA Future
  • Weather
  • News
  • Calendar

Search form

University of Arizona News | Home
Submit a Story Idea
Subscribe
  • Stories
    • All Stories
    • Arts
    • Business & Law
    • Campus
    • Health
    • Sci | Tech
    • Social Sciences
    • Sports
    • Students
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • In the News
  • Calendar
  • UA@Work
  • For Journalists
    • Media Information
    • News Releases
    • Experts
    • Electronic Press Kits
  • Contact Us

Gallery: OSIRIS-REx team welcomes Bennu sample to Earth

Sept. 25, 2023
a small black tire-sized capsule and a red and orange parachute lying on a desert landscape
three people approaching a tire-sized capsule on a desert landscape
A black, metal container scorched black sits on the ground in the desert
Two helicopters flying low over a desert environment.
a crowd of people cheering in front of a banner with the NASA logo
Three people are crouched around a black metal object and covering it in a heavy material.
A person is standing facing away, standing next to a metal container wrapped in heavy ropes while a helicopter lands in the background.
A person stands under a helicopter that is taking off while a metal container is being carried off by the helicopter.
Dante Lauretta walking away from a helicopter with his hands raised triumpantly
A man stands in front of a group of journalists asking him questions.
Four people stand in a group while a man speaks to them.
Two men shake hands and smile in front of a partially covered graphic with space imagery.
a small black tire-sized capsule and a red and orange parachute lying on a desert landscape
The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule lying near its parachute shortly after touching down in the Utah desert. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
1 of 12
three people approaching a tire-sized capsule on a desert landscape
Dante Lauretta (right), UArizona Regents Professor and OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, collects science data with NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin and NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford shortly after the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range on Sunday, Sept. 24. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
2 of 12
A black, metal container scorched black sits on the ground in the desert
The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
3 of 12
Two helicopters flying low over a desert environment.
A helicopter returns with the capsule carrying pieces of rocks and dust collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. The capsule landed early in the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, and teams were deployed to take environmental measurements to rule out Earthly contamination before helicopters flew the sample back to a clean room. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
4 of 12
a crowd of people cheering in front of a banner with the NASA logo
A crowd, including University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins, cheers as the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule touches down. (Photo: Chris Richards/University Communications)
5 of 12
Three people are crouched around a black metal object and covering it in a heavy material.
From left to right, Lockheed Martin Mission Operations Assurance Lead Graham Miller, Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Michael Kaye, and Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Levi Hanish, prepare the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission for transport, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
6 of 12
A person is standing facing away, standing next to a metal container wrapped in heavy ropes while a helicopter lands in the background.
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama attaches the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transport to the cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
7 of 12
A person stands under a helicopter that is taking off while a metal container is being carried off by the helicopter.
On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama attaches the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transport to the cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. (Photo: Keegan Barber/NASA)
8 of 12
Dante Lauretta walking away from a helicopter with his hands raised triumpantly
Lauretta victoriously returns from the field where he and other scientists sampled the immediate environment around the sample return capsule before towing it away by helicopter. (Photo: Chris Richards/University Communications)
9 of 12
A man stands in front of a group of journalists asking him questions.
Principal investigator for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission and University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta speaking to reporters after successfully returning with the team that recovered the sample return capsule from the Utah desert. This mission was decades in the making. The spacecraft traveled for seven years and over 4 billion miles before returning home. (Photo: Chris Richards/University Communications)
10 of 12
Four people stand in a group while a man speaks to them.
OSIRIS-REx mission principal investigator and University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta speaks with mission team members, including the mission's implementation systems engineer Anjani Polit from the University of Arizona. (Photo: Chris Richards/University Communications)
11 of 12
Two men shake hands and smile in front of a partially covered graphic with space imagery.
Principal investigator for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission and University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta shakes hands with University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. (Photo: Chris Richards/University Communications)
12 of 12
Previous Next

After a seven-year journey covering 4 billion miles, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew past Earth on Sunday to deliver its bounty – an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams, of rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu.

The capsule with the asteroid sample touched down right on time – just before 8 a.m. Tucson time – in the Utah desert, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at UArizona, was among the first people to approach the sample return capsule after it landed.

"It was like seeing an old friend that you hadn't seen for a long time," Lauretta said during a post-landing press conference hosted by NASA at the range. "I did want to give it a hug."

After determining the capsule was safe to approach, scientists bagged it and transported it via a cable below a helicopter to a nearby clean room. The canister inside the capsule, which holds the sample, underwent a "nitrogen purge" to keep out earthly contaminants and keep the sample pure for scientific analyses.

The canister is now en route to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where curation scientists will disassemble it, extract and weigh the sample, create an inventory of the rocks and dust, and, over time, distribute pieces of Bennu to scientists worldwide.

The Bennu sample will help scientists make discoveries to better understand planet formation and the origin of organics and water that led to life on Earth, as well as benefit all of humanity by learning more about potentially hazardous asteroids.

The delivery marked the end of the space-voyaging phase of the mission, which launched on Sept. 8, 2016. Key milestones along the way included the spacecraft's arrival at Bennu on Dec. 3, 2018, the search for a safe sample-collection site in 2019 and 2020, sample collection on Oct. 20, 2020, and the return trip home starting on May 10, 2021.

Once the spacecraft jettisoned the capsule at 3:42 a.m. Tucson time on Sunday, it officially began its extended mission, OSIRIS-APEX, to study and map another potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid, called Apophis. Planetary sciences assistant professor and OSIRIS-REx deputy principal investigator Dani DellaGiustina will serve as principal investigator for OSIRIS-APEX.

See key moments from Sunday's sample return in the gallery above, featuring photos from UArizona photographer Chris Richards and NASA photographer Keegan Barber.

Share

SUBSCRIBE

Get the latest UArizona News delivered to your inbox. Or, stay in the loop using our Amazon Alexa skill.

Subscribe Get Alexa Alerts

University of Arizona News | Home
  • Employment
  • Emergency Information
  • Title IX
  • UAlert
  • Information Security & Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Campus Accessibility
  • Contact Us
  • Feedback

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.


University Information Security and Privacy

© 2023 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona.