The gumdrop-shaped capsule, released from the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx as the mothership passed within 67,000 miles of Earth hours earlier, touched down within a designated landing zone west of Salt Lake City on the U.S. military's vast Utah Test and Training Range.
The final descent and landing, shown on a NASA livestream, capped a six-year joint mission between the U.S. space agency and the University of Arizona. It marked only the third asteroid sample, and by far the biggest, ever returned to Earth for analysis, following two similar missions by Japan's space agency ending in 2010 and 2020.
OSIRIS-REx collected its specimen three years ago from Bennu, a small, carbon-rich asteroid discovered in 1999. The space rock is classified as a "near-Earth object" because it passes relatively close to our planet every six years, though the odds of an impact are considered remote.
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NASA readies for dramatic return of asteroid sample to EarthWASHINGTON: The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable.The Osiris-Rex probe's final, fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere will be perilous, but the US space agency is hoping for a soft landing, around 9:00am local (15H00 GMT), in a military test range in northwestern Utah.Four years after its 2016 launch, the probe landed on the asteroid Bennu and collected roughly nine ounces (250 grams) of dust from its rocky surface.Even that small amount, NASA says, should 'help us better understand the types of asteroids that could threaten Earth' and cast light 'on the earliest history of our solar system,' NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.'This sample return is really historic,' NASA scientist Amy Simon told AFP. 'This is going to be the biggest sample we've brought back since the Apollo moon rocks' were returned to Earth.But the capsule's return will require 'a dangerous maneuver,' she acknowledged.Osiris-Rex is set to release the capsule -- from an altitude of more than 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers) -- some four hours before it lands.The fiery passage through the atmosphere will come only in the last 13 minutes, as the capsule hurtles downward at a speed of more than 27,000 miles per hour, with temperatures of up to 5,000 Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius).Its rapid descent, monitored by army sensors, will be slowed by two successive parachutes. Should they fail to deploy correctly, a 'hard landing' would follow.If it appears that the target zone (37 by 9 miles) might be missed, NASA controllers could decide at the last moment not to release the capsule.The probe would then keep its cargo and make another orbit of the sun. Scientists would have to wait until 2025 before trying a new landing.
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NASA readies for dramatic return of asteroid sample to EarthThe climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is due to land in the Utah
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NASA capsule bearing asteroid sample in imminent return to EarthDUGWAY, United States -- A seven-year space voyage comes to its climactic end Sunday when a NASA capsule lands in the desert in the US state of Utah, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.
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Major asteroid sample brought to Earth in NASA first'Touchdown of the Osiris-Rex sample return capsule!' a commentator said on NASA's live video webcast of the landing.
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