NASA awaits asteroid samples containing 'building blocks of life'

Scientists in the OSIRIS-REx Sample Curation Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center await the return of an unmanned spacecraft carrying rock and dust samples from the asteroid Bennu that they hope contain "the building blocks of life," according to Nicole Lunning, the lead sample curator for the mission.

A sample from the asteroid Bennu, which could be key to understanding the formation of the solar system and our own planet, is set to be analyzed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after it reaches Earth in late September.

The precious cargo is currently aboard OSIRIS-REx, a US space probe launched in 2016 to Bennu, which orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 105 million miles.