Early on Sunday morning, the skies above a secluded military complex in central Australia will be brightened by a fireball plummeting to Earth. It will be a flamboyant homecoming for the sample return ...

Infrared sensors on the ground detected the heat signature of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample-return capsule when it slammed into the atmosphere at more than 45,000 km/h (27,650 mph), at 8:42 a.m.

The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, has collected as much as several hundred grams of asteroid material, which could help scientists understand the earliest stages of the Solar System. The ...

A six-year round trip to an asteroid and back has yielded unprecedented insights into the formation of the solar system. Scientists have conducted the first comprehensive analysis of samples returned ...

An artist's conception of the fetch rover approaching a sample collection tube. Editor at Large For nearly half a century, NASA has been talking an awfully good game about its much-heralded Mars ...

Second time's the charm. Sample tube 266 contains the rover's first rock, which NASA hopes to bring back to Earth on future missions for further study. Reading time 2 minutes For the Perseverance Mars ...