This September, after traveling billions of miles through our solar system, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will cruise past Earth with an extraordinary delivery. As it passes, it will release a mini-fridge size capsule containing a sample of primordial space rock collected from an asteroid located between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

OSIRIS-REx—the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer—is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. Scientists hope the pristine material it collected from asteroid Bennu in 2020—about half a pound of rubble and dust from the asteroid's surface—will provide a window into 4.5 billion years ago when the sun and planets were forming.

Before it can do that, the sample's protective capsule will withstand temperatures twice as hot as lava, and the second-fastest velocity ever achieved by a human-made object entering Earth's atmosphere.

After entering Earth's atmosphere at around 36 times the speed of sound, the capsule may eventually encounter wind, rain, and other weather conditions as it drops closer to the surface. Regardless of weather, it will land in the Great Salt Lake Desert, an arid landscape known for its scorching summer temperatures and its salt flats, the remnants of an ancient lakebed where crusty salt deposits coat the ground.

NASA is set to release on Thursday the findings of a long-awaited study on unexplained flying objects in Earth's skies.

The US space agency announced last year it was reviewing evidence regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs—which has replaced the term "UFO" in official parlance.

The subject has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science.

An independent team of 16 researchers shared their preliminary observations in May, finding that existing data and eyewitness reports are insufficient to draw firm conclusions, while calling for more systematic collection of high-quality data.

It's unlikely Thursday's report will change that bottom line—but it could eventually usher in the start of a new mission for the agency.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said his country could soon send its first astronauts to the Moon in a Chinese spacecraft, hailing Thursday a scientific cooperation agreement reached with President Xi Jinping.

Maduro arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after a tour of Shanghai and other Chinese cities, meeting Xi on Wednesday and agreeing to "upgrade" ties with Beijing.

Maduro announced during his meeting with Xi on Wednesday that the two countries had agreed to train young Venezuelan astronauts in China, with plans to eventually send them to the Moon.

A special task team "on scientific, technological, industrial and aerospace cooperation will sooner rather than later (send) the first Venezuelan man and woman to the moon in a Chinese spacecraft", Maduro said.

"Very soon, Venezuelan youth will come here to prepare as astronauts in Chinese schools," he said.