NASAUS plans to launch a spacecraft near a potentially dangerous asteroid in 2029 will continue – at least into next year.
After threats to cancel the mission, the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft received a last-minute appropriation of $20 million in the House budget bill to continue essential operations into the next fiscal year. However, the fate of another 18 NASA missions scheduled to end Oct. 1 remains unclear due to the ongoing government shutdown.
OSIRIS-APEX stands for Origin, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Apophis Explorer. The mission plans to observe a quarter-mile (400 meters) wide object. asteroid Apophiswhich was once considered to pose a minor threat to Earth during the upcoming close encounter in 2029.
Additional observations fortunately indicated that Apophis, named after an ancient Egyptian god associated with chaos, would fly instead. safe on earth. However, it will come very close: its trajectory will put it into the orbit of geostationary satellites at a distance of approximately 22,000 miles (36,000 km), potentially making it visible to the naked eye. But since Apophis periodically crosses the path of our planet, the risk of a direct collision in the distant future still exists.
“Apophis is one of the most interesting near-Earth asteroids we have ever discovered,” said Della Giustina. “By studying Apophis during and after its encounter with Earth, we have a unique opportunity to understand how close passes of planets change the shape of small bodies: from seismic shaking and landslides on the surfaceto changes in rotation and orbit.”
However, in May the Trump administration placed OSIRIS-APEX on list of 19 NASA missions which they intended to eliminate as part of sweeping cuts that would cut the agency's budget by almost 25%from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. The fate of the remaining 18 missions remains uncertain; The US government has been shut down since October 1 after lawmakers in Washington, D.C., failed to reach an agreement on this year's fiscal budget.
Although OSIRIS-APEX operations are safe in 2026–2027, Congress is requiring an annual review of NASA funding. This means the mission, along with other NASA projects, will be re-evaluated for funding in the next fiscal year.
DellaGiustina said she hopes the funding will continue. The mission was “explicitly named,” she said, in the House and Senate versions of NASA's fiscal year 2026 budget, thanks to support from Arizona's congressional delegation, particularly Sen. Mark Kelly (D)—a former NASA astronaut—and Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R), a graduate of the University of Arizona, an institution that heads OSIRIS-APEX and which also headed OSIRIS-REX).
“Congress recognized the value of keeping our spacecraft and instruments operational during our mission to Apophis,” Della Giustina said. “This does not guarantee future funding, but it helps us move forward and gives us a chance to make this unique meeting possible.”
The future of science is at risk
While the funding comes as a relief to the team, it's not all good news. The science team did not receive any funding for active research this year, meaning mission managers—and the early-career researchers they mentor, such as students—cannot engage in analysis, planning or the science mission.
Della Giustina said it was “regrettable to suspend participation for a year or more.” In 2022, NASA's most recent senior mission review—a community effort conducted approximately every three years to evaluate the benefits of scientific exploration—explicitly stated that mentoring within the team would be beneficial to the space community.
“This long-term mission provided an effective professional development plan that will move junior scientists into more senior positions as the mission progresses,” senior review statedadding that most of OSIRIS-APEX's senior management, including Della Giustina herself, had come from previous junior positions at OSIRIS-REx.
In the meantime, both missions continue to publish scientific articles annually; their scientific productivity was praised by the senior research team, which in 2022 noted at least 137 published papers “that reveal important discoveries and understanding of the structure and evolution of a small asteroid.”
According to Della Giustina, many other articles have been published over the past three years, and more will soon appear regarding the composition and origin of Bennu. It is noteworthy that Natural paper in January showed that through the parent body from which Bennu emerged flowed a kind of brine that included carbonates – the building blocks of life. “The parent body could be like an ocean world,” Della Giustina said.
