OSIRIS-REx Return Cruise/Extended Mission to Apophis

  • Released Wednesday, July 26, 2023
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Top-down view of OSIRIS-REx’s return to Earth after studying asteroid Bennu. A sample of Bennu’s surface carried by the spacecraft will be deposited at Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The spacecraft will then begin its extended mission - beginning the long journey towards a rendezvous with Apophis in 2029.

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, and briefly touched down on near-Earth asteroid Bennu in October 2020 to gather a cupful of material. Seven months later, it departed Bennu on a 1.2-billion-mile cruise back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx will deliver its cargo – a capsule containing the Bennu samples – to Utah’s West Desert on September 24, 2023. After flying past Earth, the spacecraft will adopt a new name for an extended mission. OSIRIS-APEX will spend five-and-a-half years in an elliptical orbit of the Sun and rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Apophis in 2029. It will orbit and study Apophis for a year-and-a-half and will venture close to its surface to stir up loose material.

The visualizations on this page depict a portion of the return cruise from Bennu to Earth (beginning in July 2022), and the extended-mission cruise to Apophis. The complete return cruise can be found on the OSIRIS-REx orbits, maneuvers, and mapping page.

A view of OSIRIS-REx’s arrival back to Earth

Top-down view of OSIRIS-REx’s return to Earth after studying asteroid Bennu. A sample of Bennu’s surface carried by the spacecraft will be deposited at Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The spacecraft will then begin its extended mission - beginning the long journey towards a rendezvous with Apophis in 2029. This version includes white marks indicating Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCMs) leading up to Earth arrival.

Still Image - OSIRIS-REx headed back to Earth after departing Bennu in May 2021

Still Image - OSIRIS-REx headed back to Earth after departing Bennu in May 2021

Still Image - OSIRIS-APEX cruise to Apophis

Still Image - OSIRIS-APEX cruise to Apophis

Still Image - OSIRIS-APEX arrives at Apophis in April 2029

Still Image - OSIRIS-APEX arrives at Apophis in April 2029

Top-down view of OSIRIS-REx’s return to Earth after studying asteroid Bennu. A sample of Bennu’s surface carried by the spacecraft will be deposited at Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The spacecraft will then begin its extended mission - beginning the long journey towards a rendezvous with Apophis in 2029. This version has no dates.

Top-down view of OSIRIS-REx’s return to Earth after studying asteroid Bennu. A sample of Bennu’s surface carried by the spacecraft will be deposited at Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The spacecraft will then begin its extended mission - beginning the long journey towards a rendezvous with Apophis in 2029. This version uses the Spanish label "Tierra" for Earth.

A view of OSIRIS-REx’s arrival back to Earth. This version uses the Spanish label "Tierra" for Earth.

Separate layer of just dates for the above visualizations

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Datasets used

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This page was originally published on Wednesday, July 26, 2023.
This page was last updated on Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 11:01 PM EST.