Asteroid & Comet Missions

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is set to launch on Oct. 12, beginning its mission to investigate a giant metal asteroid of the same name and unravel the secrets of the early solar system.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe captured photos during the release of its return capsule last month, preserving the historic moment for posterity.

SpaceX fired up its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket on Saturday (Sept. 30) to get it ready to launch NASA's Psyche asteroid mission on Oct. 12.

The launch of NASA's Psyche mission has been delayed by a week to Oct. 12, so the team can deal with a recently detected thruster issue.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample-return mission will return pieces of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. Follow the historic landing live here.

NASA's Psyche mission is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Oct. 12.

As NASA saw its first asteroid sample return to Earth, three museums took particular notice, knowing they had been chosen to display small examples of the space rock material.

Scientists removed the outer lid of OSIRIS-REx's sample canister on Tuesday (Sept. 26). But a full reveal of the mission's asteroid sample is still two weeks away.

The asteroid sample collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed in Houston today (Sept. 25), a day after arriving on Earth from very deep space.

As his spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth carrying irreplaceable asteroid samples from deep space, Dante Lauretta was just trying to avoid having a breakdown in front of an international audience.