NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), successfully brought back a sample of material from the approximately 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu.
The collected sample will be distributed to global labs, including partners like the Canadian Space Agency and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Approximately 70% will be preserved for future, more advanced analysis.
NASA's mission commenced in September 2016. It reached the Bennu asteroid in December 2018. In October 2022, it collected samples and began the return journey on May 10, 2021.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx marks its first asteroid sample collection, while JAXA boasts two missions: Hayabusa 1, which collected from Itokawa in 2010, and Hayabusa 2, which returned Ryugu samples in 2020.