A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples is streaking toward a touchdown in the Utah desert.
FILE - This illustration provided by NASA depicts the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu. On Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, 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, closing out a seven-year quest. streaked toward a touchdown in the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.released the capsule from 63,000 miles out.
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.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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