The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.
The Osiris-Rex probe's final, fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere will be perilous, but the U.S. space agency is hoping for a soft landing, around 9 a.m. local time, in a military test range in northwestern Utah.