Houston: In a remarkable achievement, NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft safely delivered its first asteroid samples from deep space, parachuting into the Utah desert after a seven-year journey.
During a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from a distance of 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers). The small capsule landed approximately four hours later on a remote section of military land while the mothership continued its mission to explore another asteroid.
“Touchdown confirmed!” Flight Control declared, making the announcement with excitement as the landing occurred three minutes earlier than expected. Officials later revealed that the orange-striped parachute opened at a higher altitude than anticipated, approximately 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), which led to the earlier-than-planned touchdown.
Scientists estimate that the capsule contains at least a cup of material from the carbon-rich asteroid known as Bennu. However, the exact amount won’t be determined until the container is opened. During collection three years ago, some material spilled and floated away when the spacecraft collected more than intended, causing rocks to jam the container’s lid.
Japan, the only other country to have successfully retrieved asteroid samples, collected about a teaspoon of material in two asteroid missions.
The pebbles and dust brought back by Osiris-Rex represent the largest haul of extraterrestrial material from beyond the moon. These preserved building blocks, dating back 4.5 billion years to the early solar system, will provide valuable insights into the formation of Earth and life itself.
The Osiris-Rex mothership was launched on a $1 billion mission in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later and, using a long stick vacuum, collected rubble from the small, roundish space rock in 2020. By the time of its return, the spacecraft had traveled a staggering 4 billion miles (6.2 billion kilometers).
NASA’s retrieval operation in Utah involved helicopters and a temporary clean room established at the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range. The samples will be transported tomorrow (Monday) to a new laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The same facility already houses hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts more than half a century ago.
The mission’s chief scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, will accompany the samples to Texas. He described the opening of the container in Houston, expected in the next day or two, as “the real moment of truth” due to the uncertainty regarding the quantity inside.
Engineers estimate that the canister contains approximately 250 grams (8.82 ounces) of material from Bennu, with a margin of error of plus or minus 100 grams (plus or minus 3.53 ounces). Even at the lower end of this estimate, it will comfortably exceed the mission’s minimum requirement, according to Lauretta.
A precise measurement will be determined over the next few weeks, said NASA’s lead curator, Nicole Lunning.
NASA is planning a public show-and-tell event in October to share the excitement of this historic achievement.
