What is OSIRIS-REx Bennu Sample Return?

Many important discoveries about the Solar System have been made remotely, with telescopes, but laboratories on Earth have far more advanced and varied tools than a spacecraft can carry. A sample-return mission sends a spacecraft to collect material from another world and bring it back to Earth for analysis. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft traveled to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu, collected rocks and dust from its surface on October 20, 2020, and delivered the sample to Earth in September 2023. Scientists hope the sample will show whether asteroids that struck Earth long ago delivered water and other ingredients for life. Lockheed Martin designed and built the spacecraft and its sample return capsule.

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