As Osiris-Rex enters the atmosphere, it will create a fireball in the sky, but a heat shield and parachutes will slow down its descent and land it in Utah's Western Desert.
The capsule carries samples taken from the Bennu asteroid, a mountain-sized space rock that promises to answer questions about the universe.
The lead researcher, Professor Dante Lauretta, said, "When we bring back the 250 grams of samples from Bennu to Earth, we will be looking at materials that predate our planet, and maybe even some particles that predate our Solar System."
The prevailing idea is that many essential components arrived on our planet during a cataclysmic asteroid bombardment in its early history.
The quest to obtain pieces of Bennu began in 2016 when NASA's Osiris-Rex probe was launched toward the 500-meter-wide object.
