After Bennu, the NASA probe "Osiris-Rex" is also supposed to explore the asteroid Apophis.
The mission of the probe, which is currently on its way back to Earth with a sample from Bennu, will be extended by at least nine years, the US space agency NASA said.
The then "Osiris-Apex" titled mission should be guided into an orbit around Apophis after the completion of the previous plan.
According to calculations, the asteroid with a diameter of around 370 meters will fly by at a distance of around 32,000 kilometers from Earth in 2029 and could thus be studied up close for the first time.
In 2020, "Osiris-Rex" was the first US missile in space history to take a sample from an asteroid.
Bennu's sample is scheduled to deliver the probe to Earth in September 2023.
"Osiris Rex" (the abbreviation stands for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) was launched in September 2016 from the Cape Canaveral spaceport and arrived at Bennu around two years later.
In addition to "Osiris-Rex", NASA also extended the missions of six other missions: The Mars missions "Mars Odyssey", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", "Maven", "Curiosity" and "InSight", the moon probe " Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the New Horizons mission originally sent to Pluto.