NASA's Osiris-Rex sets record by entering orbit around tiny asteroid

A NASA spacecraft has gone into orbit around an ancient asteroid, setting a pair of records.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft entered orbit Monday around the asteroid Bennu, some 110 million kilometresfrom Earth. It's the smallest celestial body ever to be orbited by a spacecraft. Bennu is just 500 metresacross.

The spacecraft's laps are barely just over a kilometre above the asteroid's surface, another record.

OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu in early December and flew in formation with it until the latest manoeuvre. The goal is to grab gravel samples in 2020 for return to Earth in 2023.

The New Year's Eve milestone occurred just hours before another NASA explorer, New Horizons, was set to fly past an icy space rock beyond Pluto.