NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu Monday afternoon, two years and more than two billion miles after launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The meeting is part of the agency’s $800-million mission to the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt.

» RELATED: NASA's InSight landing on Mars

NASA broadcast the arrival on NASA TV and also aired a preview program. If you missed the footage, you can rewatch it here, via Periscope.

OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) will spend about a year surveying the asteroid "with the goal of selecting a location that is safe and scientifically interesting to collect the sample," according to NASA.

» RELATED: Robotic bees on Mars? NASA's newest plan for the Red Planet

"Collecting and analyzing a sample of the asteroid could tell scientists a lot about the origins of our solar system, its planets, and the source of organic molecules that may have given rise to life on Earth," Wired Magazine reported. If the mission planners are able to obtain a sample of at least 2 ounces, "it'll be the largest such sample NASA has collected since the Apollo missions in the 1970s."

The spacecraft will return the asteroid sample to Earth in September 2023.

More about OSIRIS-REx at nasa.gov.

About the Author

Keep Reading

Chairman Jason Shaw presides over a meeting of the Georgia Public Service Commission in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Featured

Prosecutor Skandalakis has previously suggested that pursuing criminal charges against President Donald Trump may not be feasible until after he leaves office in 2029. (Craig Hudson/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images