NASA’s plans to send a spacecraft alongside a potentially dangerous asteroid in 2029 will continue for at least the next year.
After threats to cancel the mission, the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft received a last-minute allocation of $20 million in the House budget bill to continue basic operations for the upcoming fiscal year. However, the fate of 18 other NASA missions scheduled to cease operations on October 1 remains unclear due to the ongoing government shutdown.
OSIRIS-APEX stands for “Assets, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Apophis Explorer.” The mission is scheduled to monitor a quarter-mile (400 meters) width. Asteroid Apophiswhich was previously thought to pose a minor threat to Earth during an upcoming close encounter in 2029.
Fortunately, further observations showed that Apophis – named after an ancient Egyptian god associated with chaos – would fly instead. Safely through the ground. However, it will come very close: Its path will put it within the orbit of geostationary satellites, about 22,000 miles (36,000 km) away, which could make it a possibility. Visible to the naked eye. But with Apophis periodically crossing our planet’s path, there is still a risk of a direct impact in the distant future.
“Apophis is one of the closest-to-Earth asteroids we have ever discovered,” Della Giustina said. “By studying Apophis during and after its encounter with Earth, we have a unique opportunity to understand how planetary flybys reshape small objects: Seismic tremors and surface landslidesfor changes in spin and orbit.”
However, in May, the Trump administration put OSIRIS-APEX on the to-do list List of 19 NASA missions They intend to cancel it, as part of sweeping cuts that would cut the agency’s budget approximately 25%From $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. The fate of the other 18 missions remains uncertain. The US government has remained closed since October 1 after lawmakers in Washington, D.C., failed to agree on this year’s fiscal budget.
While OSIRIS-APEX operations for 2026-2027 are safe, Congress requires a review of NASA’s funding every year. This means that the mission, along with other NASA projects, will have its funding reviewed in the next fiscal year.
DellaGiustina said she hopes the funding will continue. She said the mission was “explicitly named” in the House and Senate versions of NASA’s fiscal 2026 budget, thanks to support from Arizona’s congressional delegation, especially Sen. Mark Kelly (D) — a former NASA astronaut — and Rep. Juan Ciscumani (R), a graduate of the University of Arizona (the institution that leads OSIRIS-APEX, which also led OSIRIS-REx).
“Congress has recognized the value of keeping our spacecraft and instruments intact during our journey toward Apophis,” Della Giustina said. “It doesn’t guarantee funding in future years, but it keeps us going and gives us a fighting chance to pull off this once-in-a-lifetime encounter.”
Future science is at risk
While the funding has come as a relief to the team, it’s not all good news. The science team received no funding for active research this year, meaning mission managers — and the early-career researchers they mentor, such as students — cannot do analysis, planning, or mission science.
DellaGiustina said it was “frustrating to have to pause their participation for a year or more.” In 2022, NASA’s latest Mission Review — a community-based effort conducted approximately every three years to evaluate the benefits of scientific research — explicitly stated that mentorship within the team would be beneficial to the space community.
“This long-term mission provided an effective professional development plan that would move junior scientists into more senior roles as the mission progressed.” The senior review stated thatAdding that most of OSIRIS-APEX’s senior leadership — including DellaGiustina herself — had come up through the ranks from previous junior roles at OSIRIS-REx.
Meanwhile, the two missions continue to produce scientific papers every year; Their scientific productivity received praise from the large review team, which in 2022 flagged at least 137 papers that “reveal important discoveries and insights into the structure and evolution of a small asteroid.”
Several other research papers have been published in the past three years, and more will appear soon regarding Bennu’s formation and origin, Della Giustina said. It is worth noting that A Nature paper in January It showed that the original body from which Bennu came had a type of salty water passing through it, which contains carbonates, the building blocks of life. “The original object was probably similar to the ocean world,” Della Giustina said.