After a seven-year space voyage, a NASA capsule completed its mission on Sunday (September 24) with a safe landing in the Utah desert of the United States, carrying the largest sample ever collected from an asteroid in space.
The capsule executed its final descent through Earth’s atmosphere as planned, carrying samples collected from the asteroid Bennu, and eventually parachuted into the Utah desert.
During NASA’s live video webcast of the landing, a commentator exclaimed, “Touchdown of the Osiris-Rex sample return capsule. A journey of a billion miles to asteroid Bennu and back has come to an end.”
The sample, gathered from asteroid Bennu in 2020, is estimated to contain approximately 250 grams (nine ounces) of material, which surpasses the quantity of two prior asteroid specimens brought back to Earth by Japanese missions, according to the US space agency.
NASA celebrated the landing by sharing a video of the event and stated, “TOUCHDOWN! The #OSIRISREx sample capsule landed at the Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52 am ET (1452 UTC) after a 3.86-billion mile journey. This marks the US’s first sample return mission of its kind and will open a time capsule to the beginnings of our solar system.”
Scientists have expressed optimism about the sample, believing it will provide valuable information about the solar system’s history and the conditions that led to Earth becoming habitable.
The probe, which was launched in 2016, reached asteroid Bennu after four years and successfully collected approximately nine ounces (250 grams) of dust from the asteroid’s rocky surface.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson remarked that even this small sample should “help us better understand the types of asteroids that could threaten Earth” and shed light “on the earliest history of our solar system.”
NASA scientist Amy Simon emphasized the historic nature of the sample return, saying, “This sample return is really historic. This is going to be the biggest sample we’ve brought back since the Apollo moon rocks were returned to Earth,” in an interview with AFP.
The capsule was released by Osiris-Rex earlier on Sunday from an altitude of over 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers), approximately four hours before its landing.
After touching down in Utah, a team wearing protective gear placed the tire-sized capsule in a net. It was then airlifted by helicopter to a nearby temporary “clean room.”
On Monday, the sample will be transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Specialists will open the box containing the sample in another “clean room.”
NASA plans to announce the initial results of the sample testing during a news conference on October 11.
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