Posted on Sep 24, 2023
Watch Live: To cheers, NASA asteroid sample capsule safely touches down in Utah
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https://www.npr.org/2023/09/24/ [login to see] /watch-live-nasa-sends-an-asteroid-sample-back-to-earth
After traveling billions of miles for seven years to touch an asteroid and bring a sample home, NASA's Osiris-REx mission has finally delivered a precious sample to Earth.
The sample canister successfully touched down around 10:52 a.m. Eastern in a Utah desert after a nail-biting descent through the atmosphere.
The canister had begun its solo journey earlier Sunday morning after being released by the Osiris-REx spacecraft as it passed within 63,000 miles of the planet's surface.
In the capsule should be roughly a coffee mug's worth of rock and other material collected from the asteroid Bennu, which at the time was more than 200 million miles away.
If found to be intact, that single serving of space rock will mark the biggest haul of extraterrestrial material brought back by any nation on Earth since the Apollo astronauts carried pieces of the moon home, and the culmination of NASA's first attempt to bring samples of an asteroid back to Earth.
After traveling billions of miles for seven years to touch an asteroid and bring a sample home, NASA's Osiris-REx mission has finally delivered a precious sample to Earth.
The sample canister successfully touched down around 10:52 a.m. Eastern in a Utah desert after a nail-biting descent through the atmosphere.
The canister had begun its solo journey earlier Sunday morning after being released by the Osiris-REx spacecraft as it passed within 63,000 miles of the planet's surface.
In the capsule should be roughly a coffee mug's worth of rock and other material collected from the asteroid Bennu, which at the time was more than 200 million miles away.
If found to be intact, that single serving of space rock will mark the biggest haul of extraterrestrial material brought back by any nation on Earth since the Apollo astronauts carried pieces of the moon home, and the culmination of NASA's first attempt to bring samples of an asteroid back to Earth.
Watch Live: To cheers, NASA asteroid sample capsule safely touches down in Utah
Posted from npr.org
Space
NASA
Houston
Science
Posted 7 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."A charcoal briquette
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in 2016 and in 2018 finally reached Bennu, a rubble pile of an asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building. The spacecraft tagged along with the space rock for nearly two years and in 2020 it finally dipped down and briefly touched Bennu to gather a sample.
Scientists weren't sure exactly how much rock the spacecraft collected, and knew they'd only find out if its return capsule made it home.
The $1-billion mission culminated in triumph after a nail-biting final 13 minutes on Sunday morning, when the capsule entered the atmosphere at 36 times the speed of sound and fell towards a military training range in a desert near Salt Lake City.
Mission scientists anxiously awaited the deployment of the orange-and-white parachutes that would slow its fall. Without that parachute, the capsule might have crash-landed and broken open.
Lauretta says he was in a helicopter, listening to updates from mission controllers, and mentally preparing himself for the worst if the parachute failed.
"And then we heard 'main chute detected,' and I literally broke into tears," he recalls. "That was the moment I knew we made it home."...
..."A charcoal briquette
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in 2016 and in 2018 finally reached Bennu, a rubble pile of an asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building. The spacecraft tagged along with the space rock for nearly two years and in 2020 it finally dipped down and briefly touched Bennu to gather a sample.
Scientists weren't sure exactly how much rock the spacecraft collected, and knew they'd only find out if its return capsule made it home.
The $1-billion mission culminated in triumph after a nail-biting final 13 minutes on Sunday morning, when the capsule entered the atmosphere at 36 times the speed of sound and fell towards a military training range in a desert near Salt Lake City.
Mission scientists anxiously awaited the deployment of the orange-and-white parachutes that would slow its fall. Without that parachute, the capsule might have crash-landed and broken open.
Lauretta says he was in a helicopter, listening to updates from mission controllers, and mentally preparing himself for the worst if the parachute failed.
"And then we heard 'main chute detected,' and I literally broke into tears," he recalls. "That was the moment I knew we made it home."...
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We have been waiting for this capsule for a long time!!! Great share, PO1 William "Chip" Nagel!!! Now to see what they find in the Lab!!!
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