Dante Lauretta, Ph.D.

Dante Lauretta is principal investigator of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and a Regents Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. His research focuses on the chemistry and mineralogy of asteroids and comets, and he is an expert in the analysis of extraterrestrial materials, including asteroid samples, meteorites and comet particles.

Lauretta fosters the advancement of the next generation of scientists, engineers and other space leaders through mentorship and teaching that applies his expertise in planetary science and spacecraft mission design and implementation.

Lauretta heads the OSIRIS-REx research team at the University of Arizona. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in September 2016 and began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample in October 2020. The spacecraft began its return voyage to Earth on May 10, 2021. On Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will jettison the sample capsule and send it on a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert. Sample analysis will continue until 2025. These samples will be the first for a U.S. mission and may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth.

After the sample is returned to Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will continue on to study near-Earth asteroid Apophis. Lauretta's former student Dani DellaGiustina, a University of Arizona planetary sciences assistant professor, will become principal investigator of that mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX.

In 2017, Lauretta was given NASA's Silver Achievement Medal, awarded by NASA's center directors for "a stellar achievement" that supports the space agency's core values.

In 2021, Lauretta and the team behind OSIRIS-REx were given the American Astronautical Society's Space Technology Award for the team's "extraordinary achievements" in surveying Bennu and acquiring a sample. The team was also awarded the 2022 John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration by the Space Foundation, which recognizes "extraordinary accomplishments by a company, space agency or consortium of organizations in the realm of space exploration and discovery." The award is named for the command module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission.

Lauretta is also a UArizona alumnus. He graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics from the College of Science and a Bachelor of Art in Oriental studies with an emphasis in Japanese from the College of Humanities. He earned his Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences in 1997 from Washington University in St. Louis.