From Bennu to Apophis
OSIRIS-APEX is the extended mission of OSIRIS-REx, which successfully returned a sample from asteroid Bennu in September 2023. Now heading to asteroid Apophis — a 370-metre near-Earth asteroid that will make an extraordinarily close flyby of Earth on 13 April 2029, passing within 31,000 km.
What Will It Study?
OSIRIS-APEX will arrive at Apophis shortly after the 2029 flyby to study how the close gravitational encounter changed the asteroid's orbit, spin, and surface.
Mission Timeline
2016-09-08
Original launch as OSIRIS-REx
2023-09-24
Bennu sample returned to Earth
2023-10
Renamed OSIRIS-APEX, redirected to Apophis
2029-04-13
Apophis Earth flyby (31,000 km)