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NASA says the largest amount of extraterrestrial rocks and dust collected since Apollo is scheduled to be brought back from space this Sunday.

Space Coast & Beyond newsletter.

Scientists have fine-tuned the path of the asteroid Bennu and say the odds of it smacking into Earth are higher than previously thought but still quite low.

A NASA spacecraft is headed back to Earth with rubble it collected from an asteroid nearly 200 million miles away.

A NASA spacecraft left a mess at an asteroid after grabbing a load of rubble last fall for return to Earth.

Before it begins the long trek home NASA will send OSIRIS-REx past the area where it stirred up the asteroid’s surface.

How scientists know we’re not going to get squashed by an asteroidPublished: October 22, 2020, 10:12 amA NASA spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx just collected a piece of a potentially hazardous asteroid to bring a sample back to Earth. The U.S. space agency also has several other asteroid spacecraft missions in the works and is not alone in its determination to better understand asteroids in order to deflect large space rocks but also to learn from these fossils of our solar system.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A member of NASA’s first asteroid sample collection mission team and UCF planetary scientist is teaching a class about asteroids and comets just hours before the mission he has been working on for a decade is set to collect a sample of the asteroid Bennu. [LIVE UPDATES: Follow along as NASA’s spacecraft picks up a piece of asteroid]“I just want them to be excited,” he said. And so this is very relevant.”Campins isn’t the only UCF faculty on the OSIRIS-REx team, Associate Prof. Kerri Donaldson Hanna also serves as a a participating scientist on the mission. A photo of the asteroid Bennu, taken by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from 85 miles away. If all goes well, the spacecraft will drop the capsule with the sample back on Earth in 2023 completing its mission to Bennu and back.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft briefly smooched the surface of a potentially hazardous asteroid more than 200 million miles away on Tuesday successfully conducting the first U.S. asteroid sample attempt but it will be a few days before we know how much it picked up. [RECAP: History made as NASA successfully tags asteroid Bennu to collect sample]“This mission has almost been like clockwork,” spacecraft science team member and UCF Associate Prof. Kerri Donaldson Hanna said. Donaldson Hanna is one of two University of Central Florida faculty serving on the NASA mission, including UCF planetary scientist Humberto Campins. This Aug. 11, 2020 photo shows the sampling arm of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a rehearsal for an approach to the "Nightingale" sample site on the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Studying the asteroid in space up close and when the asteroid sample is dropped on Earth in 2023 will help scientists learn how to deflect a potentially hazardous asteroid like it.

Here is a full list of activities leading up to the asteroid “tag” and after to learn how it went. See a recap of the events leading up to the asteroid “tag” and for reaction from OSIRIS-REx team members after the main event. 🌍 pic.twitter.com/fP7xdOEeOs — NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 20, 20206:11 p.m. OSIRIS-REx ‘go’ to TAG asteroid, sampling happening nowTouchdown is happening and the sampling is in progress, per NASA. “This is history,” an emotional Principal Investigator Dante Dante Lauretta said. “Whatever has happened has already happened,” OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Dante Lauretta said.

This undated image made available by NASA shows the asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. After almost two years circling the ancient asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft descended Tuesday toward the surface of an asteroid 200 million miles away to collect a handful of rubble for return to Earth. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough, boulder-covered face of the ancient space rock. Bennu’s gravity was too low for the spacecraft to land — the asteroid is just 1,670 feet (510 meters) across.