What was NASA’s original OSIRIS-REx life-cycle cost baseline?
OSIRIS-REx travelled to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, collected material from its surface and returned that sample to Earth. The mission combined deep-space navigation, a touch-and-go sampling system and a protected return capsule.
Published project estimate
$1.121 billion
Cost basis: 2013
The short answer
$1.121 billion
NASA's Office of Inspector General lists a project life-cycle cost of $1.1214 billion. Clueterra uses that full project figure rather than isolating the spacecraft, launch or sample-return phase.
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
What the number includes
Cost scope
Life-cycle cost is the consistent scope used in the NASA source. It captures the project as a mission and makes the answer more comparable with other NASA projects in this collection.
Project record
Opened or launched
NASA Office of Inspector General (IG-15-024)2016
Project context
About OSIRIS-REx
The spacecraft launched in 2016, reached Bennu in 2018 and delivered its sample capsule in 2023. The original spacecraft then continued on an extended mission under the name OSIRIS-APEX.
Reading the data
How to interpret the figure
The source amount is denominated in US dollars and is retained without currency conversion. It is not restated in current dollars.