A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples is heading toward a touchdown in the Utah desert.
On Sunday, Sept. 24, the spacecraft will fly by Earth and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu.space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples streaked toward a touchdown in the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey. released the capsule from 63,000 miles out. The capsule was expected to parachute down four hours later onto the military’s Utah Test and Training Range. from the carbon-rich asteroid known as Bennu.
Osiris-Rex rocketed away on the $1 billion mission in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later and, using a long stick vacuum, grabbed dust and pebbles from the small roundish space rock in 2020. By the time it returned Sunday, the spacecraft had traveled 4 billion miles . Now free of the sample capsule, Osiris-Rex is already targeting another asteroid. That encounter won't occur until 2029.
NASA’s recovery effort in Utah includes helicopters and a temporary clean room set up at the range. The samples will be flown Monday to a new lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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