Engineers safely stowed primeval grit collected from the asteroid Bennu after a spill, NASA officials said. The mission may bring to Earth as much as 2 pounds of pulverized rock, gravel and dust believed to date to the solar system's creation.
The malfunction involved a jammed collection canister that sent hard-won samples spewing into space and nearly derailed NASA’s Osiris-REx mission, the first U.S. attempt to. Scientists hope the material holds clues into the origins of the planets.
Wrangling their spacecraft by remote control, mission operations engineers improvised a series of delicate recovery maneuvers to successfully close the canister and latch it down for its return voyage from the small, spinning asteroid 200 million miles or so from Earth. Despite the spill, the spacecraft may bring back as much as 2 pounds of pulverized rock, gravel and dust believed to date to the creation of the solar system billions of years ago, meeting the primary scientific goal of the $1.16 billion mission, space agency officials said.
“Our flight team went around the clock to accomplish this,” said Sandra Freund, mission operations manager at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colo., which built the spacecraft. “As you can imagine in the mission support area here, there was lots of cheering.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA spacecraft seals asteroid sample to return to EarthThe OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully stowed the sample collector head, which is full of surface material gathered from near-Earth asteroid Bennu, in the sample return capsule. This will prevent any more of the sample from leaking into space.
Read more »
U.S. accuses eight in alleged plot to harass and intimidate citizens to return to ChinaEight people have been charged with conspiring to work on China's behalf in a plot involving threatening letters and the use of night vision goggles to surveil and coerce a Chinese family to return to their home country to face charges, according to a U.S. criminal complaint...
Read more »
NASCAR's Kyle Larson Signs with New Racing Team After N-Word IncidentNASCAR driver Kyle Larson will have a NEW team when he returns to the track in 2021 -- signing with Hendrick Motorsports, 6 months after his infamous n-word incident.
Read more »
Apple now has $191.83 billion in cash on hand — down nearly 7% from a year agoApple now has $191.83 billion in cash on hand — down nearly 7% from a year ago.
Read more »
Ivanka Trump is 'unapologetically' against women's abortion rights, says she's a 'pragmatist''I am pro-life, and unapologetically so,' said the first daughter.
Read more »