According to NASA, the agency has almost achieved its science mission to retrieve a sample from an ancient space rock. As per NASA, an important goal of the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has been achieved and it is prepared to enter the next phase. Key Decision Point-D of the spacecraft takes place when it is shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

According to Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, "The spacecraft structure has been integrated with the propellant tank and propulsion system and is ready to begin system integration in the Lockheed Martin highbay. The payload suite of cameras and sensors is well into its environmental test phase and will be delivered later this summer/fall."

Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-Rex at the University of Arizona, Tuscan, said that the OSIRIS-REx team is quite excited. This is the first US mission, which will retrieve samples from an asteroid to Earth, if it manages to do it successfully.

The spacecraft is prepared to travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu, from where it will be collecting at least a 60-gram (2.1-ounce) sample back to Earth for study. In order to study and evaluate the surface of Bennu, OSIRIS-REx is carrying five instruments.

OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to be launched in late 2016, and will reach Bennu in 2018. Then it will be return to Earth in 2023.

Principal investigator of the mission is at the University of Arizona, Tucson. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will be providing overall mission management and systems engineering. And it will also provide safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx.