NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission. Launched on 8 September 2016 from Cape Canaveral on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, the craft arrived at the diamond-shaped near-Earth asteroid Bennu on 3 December 2018, ending a 27 month journey covering more than 2 billion kilometers. The craft is currently flying alongside the asteroid, preparing to study it from orbit for more than a year. In October 2020 OSIRIS-Rex used a probe to take a surface sample from Bennu; it will return to Earth for study in 2023.