CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA lastly has counted up all of the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft final fall — and it’s double the rubble return purpose.
Officers reported Thursday that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected 121.6 grams (4.29 ounces) of dust and pebbles from asteroid Bennu. That’s simply over half a cup and the most important cosmic haul ever from past the moon.
It took NASA longer than anticipated to pry open the pattern container due to caught fasteners.
The black, carbon-rich samples — the primary ever collected from an asteroid by NASA — are saved at a particular curation lab at Houston’s Johnson House Middle.
Osiris-Rex returned the samples final September, three years after gathering them from the asteroid. The haul for the $1 billion mission would have been better, however rocks jammed the lid of the container following the seize and a few samples floated away.
The spacecraft is now on its solution to one other area rock, however that may contain solely a flyby with no cease for samples.
