This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface was created by combining two images taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on January 19, 2019.

A mighty spacecraft is headed towards Earth, carrying rock and dust from a distant asteroid to hand off to eager scientists waiting to analyze the precious sample. The OSIRIS-REx mission recently fired its thrusters to set itself on a course towards the sample drop-off site, with its rendezvous on Earth scheduled for later this month.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft completed a trajectory correction maneuver on Sunday, altering its velocity by approximately 0.5 miles per hour (under 1 kilometer per hour) relative to Earth, the space agency announced on Monday. If it hadn’t pulled off this critical course correction, the spacecraft would have flown right past Earth.

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The spacecraft is currently at a distance of 4 million miles away from Earth (7 million kilometers), traveling at a speed of about 14,000 mph (about 23,000 km/hr) toward its drop off zone. OSIRIS-REx may need to carry out another course correction maneuver on September 17, one week before its big delivery is due.

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