NASA’s Latest Report Reveals Spacecraft Brought Back Twice the Expected Amount of Asteroid Material

NASA has completed the tally of asteroid samples retrieved by a spacecraft in the previous autumn, and the amount has surpassed the initial goal. On Thursday, officials announced that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft successfully gathered 121.6 grams (4.29 ounces) of dust and pebbles from asteroid Bennu. This quantity is equivalent to slightly more than half a cup and represents the largest cosmic collection ever obtained from beyond the moon.

Due to fasteners that were stuck, it took NASA longer than anticipated to open the sample container. The black, carbon-rich samples, which mark the first-ever collection of this kind by NASA from an asteroid, are currently stored at a specialized curation laboratory located at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

After three years of gathering, Osiris-Rex returned the samples from the asteroid last September. The mission, which cost $1 billion, would have yielded a larger haul if not for rocks that obstructed the container’s lid during the retrieval process, causing some samples to drift away.

The spacecraft is presently en route to another space rock, although this upcoming encounter will only involve a flyby without any collection of samples.

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