Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 319, Return of O'Rex Part 3. I'm Gary Jordan. I'll be your host today. On this

podcast we bring in the experts,

scientists, engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of

Human Spaceflight and more.

Osiris Rex, or Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and security Regolith Explorer has returned

back to Earth.

The spacecraft launched in 2016 to rendezvous with an asteroid called Benu in 2018, so it can

retrieve pieces of the asteroid with it on a trip and return

them to our own home planet for study.

After a successful landing in the Utah Desert on September 24th this year, 2003,

the sample was transported here to Houston,

where we have specially designed facilities

to keep them pristine.

On October 11th, NASA revealed a first look of the sample, as well as some early discoveries to the world.

Now we've previewed this mission twice this year already, first setting the stage for its return

and discussing Bennu, and the interesting science with Mike Moreau and Nicole Lunning.

Then we brought in Christopher Snead and Marimantoya to discuss the curation facility where the samples

are currently housed diving deeper into the prep here in Houston.

On this episode, we round out the story of these samples

with more of the scientists here in Houston

who have been working with these unique samples.

...