Sept. 24 (UPI) — NASA has successfully recovered a 250-gram dust sample from the Bennu asteroid on Sunday, marking a groundbreaking achievement as the first sample return of its kind in America, according to the agency.
The sample was collected by the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx, and a capsule containing the sample was safely landed in the Utah desert at 10:52 a.m. EDT. Approximately an hour and a half later, NASA’s recovery team transported the capsule to the nearby Department of Defense Utah Test and Training Range, as stated in a press release by NASA.
“Today’s accomplishment is not only a major milestone for the OSIRIS-REx team, but also for the scientific community as a whole,” said Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Successfully delivering samples from Bennu to Earth is a testament to the collaborative ingenuity of scientists and a remarkable demonstration of our capabilities when we work together towards a common purpose. While this may seem like the end of an extraordinary chapter, it’s actually the beginning of a new one. We now have an unprecedented opportunity to analyze these samples and unravel the secrets of our solar system,” Lauretta added.
The recovered sample is being carefully preserved under a “nitrogen purge” to prevent contamination from earthly substances.
During reentry, the capsule experienced temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit and reached speeds of up to 27,650 mph. To handle the capsule, protective masks and gloves were necessary. Four helicopters were dispatched to the landing site for the retrieval operation. Flight operations were managed by Lockheed Martin Space, as reported by CNN.
In a statement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the OSIRIS-REx team on the successful mission, calling it the first-ever American asteroid sample return in history. Nelson emphasized the significance of this achievement in advancing our understanding of our solar system’s origin and formation and helping prepare for potential hazardous asteroids in the future.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft initially landed on Bennu in 2020, where researchers discovered the unexpectedly loose consistency of the asteroid. It departed from Bennu in 2021. Since its launch in 2016, the spacecraft has traveled approximately 3.86 billion miles, according to NASA.
Under its extended mission called OSIRIS-APEX, OSIRIS-REx will now embark on a journey to the asteroid Apophis.
