NASA to Brief Media on Asteroid Sample Mission Findings

NASA will brief media at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 29, to provide an update on science results from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission, which delivered a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth in September 2023.

Audio of the media call will stream live on the agency’s website.

Participants in the teleconference include:

• Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Danny Glavin, senior scientist for sample return, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland
• Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist, NASA Goddard
• Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington 
• Sara Russell, cosmic mineralogist, Natural History Museum, London

Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the call to: molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

After the teleconference, NASA Goddard will host a limited onsite media availability for reporters local to the greater Washington area. The availability will include opportunities to tour the center’s astrobiology lab, which contributed to the study of the Bennu sample. Interested reporters should request participation by Sunday, Jan. 26, to: rob.garner@nasa.gov.

Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-REx was the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid in space. The spacecraft traveled to near-Earth asteroid Bennu and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface in 2020. It delivered the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

To learn more about OSIRIS-REx, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex/

-end-

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov