(CNN) After spending two-and-a-half years together, a NASA spacecraft bid farewell to its asteroid companion Monday and began the long journey back to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, and it carries a generous amount of material collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Currently 291 million miles away from Earth, OSIRIS-REx needs to catch up with our planet -- and that takes time. It was the first NASA mission sent to a near-Earth asteroid and performed the closest orbit of a planetary body by a spacecraft. After the Bennu sample lands on Earth, it will be brought to a new lab currently in development at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Source: CNN May 10, 2021 16:10 UTC