OSIRIS-REx launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Sept. Low winds and dry weather was present at Dugway during the landing - optimal conditions for the return and recovery of the SRC.
Touchdown of the SRC occurred at 8:52 AM MDT (14:52 UTC) - three minutes earlier than planned. The sample return capsule (SRC) landed within a 14 by 58-kilometer ellipse at a Department of Defense property at the Utah Test and Training Range and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The landing of this sample capsule is the culmination of NASA’s historic Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission, which is now the first American mission to return samples from an asteroid. 24, a small capsule containing surface samples from asteroid 101955 Bennu careened into Earth’s atmosphere after a seven-year journey through space.
