NOVA

S47E14 Touching the Asteroid

In October 2020, NASA's spacecraft OSIRIS-REx embarks on a mission to collect samples from the asteroid Bennu and return them to Earth. The team has a limited window of three attempts to deploy the spacecraft's unique arm, land for five seconds, and gather surface material. Successfully achieving this could provide valuable information about the origins of our planet and equip scientists with strategies to protect against potential asteroid threats in the future. (Premiering October 21, 2020, at 9 pm on PBS)