Space travel
Asteroid sample dropped by probe landed on Earth
A NASA helicopter team waits for the space capsule to arrive. photo
© Rick Bowmer/AP/dpa
Taking the sample from the asteroid Bennu was already spectacular – now it has been brought back just as spectacularly. Dropped by NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe, the capsule landed in the Utah desert.
According to NASA estimates, the capsule contains around 250 grams of rubble that was collected from the celestial body around three years ago. After landing, it will be taken to NASA laboratories in the US state of Texas for examinations.
“Osiris Rex” (the abbreviation stands for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in September 2016 and arrived at Bennu around two years later. In October 2020, the probe took a sample from the asteroid in a complicated maneuver lasting several hours – the first US missile in space history.
After dropping the sample, the probe immediately set off for the next asteroid – Apophis. The mission had already been extended for at least nine years.