Recognition for Work on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Mission

The prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy is the highest honor in aviation and aerospace and is presented annually by The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) to the person, group, or company for the greatest achievement during the previous year in improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of aircraft or spacecraft.

The trophy has been awarded every year since its establishment in 1911 by Collier himself, a publisher and president of the Aero Club of America.

The 2023 Collier Trophy was presented to Lockheed Martin on June 13 in Washington, D.C. for their team’s work on the NASA-led OSIRIS-REx sample return mission. The team consisted of Lockheed Martin, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, the University of Arizona, Canadian Space Agency, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, KinetX, United Launch Alliance, and CNES (French National Centre for Space Studies).

The OSIRIS-REx acronym means “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer,” and was the first-ever space mission that successfully returned a sample of material from an asteroid, named Bennu. The mission was launched in 2016 and through a series of gravity-assist maneuvers arrived at Bennu and collected the sample during a brief touchdown in 2020.

Following the “Touch and Go” sample acquisition procedure, the craft returned the sample capsule in September 2023 by releasing the it during a fly-by of Earth. The capsule parachuted to the ground in the Utah Test and Training Range where it was recovered. The samples of rock and dust will be studied for decades to come by scientists around the world investigating how planets formed and to further our understanding of asteroids.

FMI: www.naa.aero, www.science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex/