NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission launched into space at 7:05 p.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, beginning a journey that could revolutionize our understanding of ...

NASA OSIRIS-REx sample collection event at Asteroid Bennu saw the spacecraft plunge its arm into the surface. Find out how ...

Lockheed Martin has completed the assembly of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The spacecraft is now undergoing environmental testing at the company’s Space Systems facilities near Denver. OSIRIS-REx ...

A pristine asteroid sample that could serve as a time capsule from the early days of our solar system has finally been revealed. The rocks and dust contain water and a large amount of carbon, said ...

Bits of rock and dust brought back from the distant asteroid Bennu contain some of the chemical building blocks of life, NASA announced Wednesday, a discovery that strengthens the theory that ...

After opening up that stubborn sample canister, NASA was finally able to weigh the full amount of asteroid bits snagged by its spacecraft more than three years ago. As it turns out, there is plenty of ...

When NASA’s only major concerns for the OSIRIS-REx launch on Thursday are some fluffy white clouds, you know the mission is in good shape. The mission, led by the University of Arizona’s Lunar and ...

Magnesium-sodium phosphate found in NASA's OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample suggests Bennu, seen above, could have originated from an ancient, primitive ocean world. Credit: NASA What the team found was ...

NASA returned its first sample of an asteroid to Earth last year, landing a sample collected from asteroid Bennu in the Utah desert in September. Researchers were able to extract 70 grams of material ...

A closeup of Bennu, showing the asteroid’s rough surface with many boulders over 30 feet long. Credit: Nasa/Goddard/University of Arizona The asteroid Bennu ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA finally has counted up all the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft last fall — and it’s double the rubble return goal. Officials reported Thursday that the Osiris-Rex ...

Early analysis of the asteroid Bennu sample returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed dust rich in carbon, nitrogen, and organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as ...