To Bennu and Back: Journey’s End

OSIRIS-REx is NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission. It launched in September 2016 on a journey to explore a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. In October 2020, the spacecraft ventured to the asteroid’s surface and collected about 250 grams of material for delivery to Earth. Now, two years and four months after leaving Bennu, OSIRIS-REx is closing in on the place where its journey began. The mission’s thrilling finale will take place on September 24, 2023, as a capsule containing the Bennu samples touches down in Utah’s West Desert.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Dan Gallagher: Producer/Narrator
Walt Feimer: Animation Lead
Michael Lentz: Art Director/Animator
Jonathan North: Animator
Jenny McElligott: Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez: Animator
Kim Dongjae: Animator
Angeles Miron: Animator
Josh Masters: Animator
Kel Elkins: Data Visualizer
Dante Lauretta: Scientist
Jason Dworkin: Scientist
Support: Michael Starobin
Support: Lonnie Shekhtman
Support: Chris Meaney
Support: Ernie Wright
Public Affairs: Rani Gran

Music: “A Sense of Urgency” and “Rise to the Challenge” by Daniel Marantz and Michael James Burns, Raydia Music library [PRS]; “Fragments of Time” by Timothy Robert Shortell, Scores of Hypersonic Music [BMI]