It’s a first for NASA. I believe this is the 3rd time that we have bought samples back to earth from asteroids. Let’s hope we didn’t bring back cosmic rust or something!
I think Hayabusa was first in 2005/2010.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A capsule containing precious samples from an asteroid landed safely on Earth on Sunday, the culmination of a roughly 4-billion-mile journey over the past seven years.
The asteroid samples were collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which flew by Earth early Sunday morning and jettisoned the capsule over a designated landing zone in the Utah desert.
After it is recovered, the capsule will be transported to a temporary clean room on the military range before being flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Agency officials said they hope to open the capsule on Monday or Tuesday, though it may take around a week before scientists can accurately weigh how much rocky material is inside.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spent nearly two years circling Bennu before using its robotic arm in what was described as a “high five” maneuver to scoop up pieces of the space rock.
Early Sunday, the spacecraft jettisoned the samples as it skirted 63,000 miles above Earth’s surface, sending the capsule screaming through the atmosphere at around 27,650 mph.
The original article contains 809 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is pretty freakin awesome.
How did they get the orange bit to stay orange when everything else is blackened?
Probably just put a little tape over it like when you’re painting the wall.
I don’t think it’s blackened by charring, it looks like the same kind of heat shield they put on the space shuttle
I saw this movie. Remember these aliens only drink coke and dance at McDonalds.
Mac and me? I swear that movie was a fever dream.
Fools. This is just what the aliens want.
