CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has surpassed its asteroid sample return goal, collecting twice the amount of rubble originally intended by the mission. The spacecraft Osiris-Rex retrieved 121.6 grams (4.29 ounces) of dust and pebbles from the asteroid Bennu, marking the biggest cosmic haul ever from beyond the moon.
After encountering some obstacles with stuck fasteners, it took NASA longer than expected to pry open the sample container. The black, carbon-rich samples, the first ever collected from an asteroid by NASA, are now stored at a specialized curation lab at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
Despite encountering challenges, the Osiris-Rex mission managed to return the samples in September, three years after initially gathering them from the asteroid. However, the haul could have been greater if rocks had not jammed the lid of the container and caused some samples to float away.
Now, the spacecraft is on its way to another space rock, but this time it will only involve a flyby with no stop for sample collection. The success of the mission has positioned NASA to further explore and study the mysteries beyond our moon.