NASA formally closes OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission

NASA concluded the OSIRIS-REx mission on Sept. 30, after it returned 121.6 grams of Bennu asteroid material — the largest asteroid sample ever brought to Earth. The spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX, is now heading to asteroid Apophis, arriving in 2029.

• Mission cost $1 billion and launched on Sept. 8, 2016
• Returned 121.6 g of Bennu material, more than twice the requirement
• Bennu, 490 m wide, was the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft
• Over 200 research papers have been published on the samples