Skip to main content

NASA spacecraft begins long journey home with asteroid sample

Earlier today, a NASA spacecraft in deep space fired its thrusters to begin its long journey home.

The space agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is bringing with it samples of material collected from the ancient Bennu asteroid last year in the first mission of its kind by NASA.

“After nearly 5 years in space, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is heading to Earth with a sample of rocks and dust from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid!” the agency said in a tweet on Monday, May 10.

After nearly 5 years in space, @NASASolarSystem's #OSIRISREx mission is heading to Earth with a sample of rocks & dust from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid!

🪨 ▪️▪️▪️🛰️▪️▪️▪️ 🌎

Check out how its mission #ToBennuAndBack exceeded our expectations: https://t.co/91n38cmQNA pic.twitter.com/bxtT0uXeu3

— NASA (@NASA) May 10, 2021

NASA livestreamed the moment when confirmation came through to its mission team that OSIRIS-REx had successfully departed Bennu’s orbit to begin its mammoth journey of some 200 million miles (320 million km).

OSIRIS-REx Departure: Farewell to Asteroid Bennu

To begin its voyage to Earth, the spacecraft fired its main engines at full throttle for seven minutes in what NASA described as OSIRIS-REx’s “most significant maneuver since it arrived at Bennu in 2018.”

The spacecraft is set to perform a flyby of Earth in September 2023, dropping off a capsule of material from an asteroid that scientists believe formed in the first 10 million years of our solar system’s existence. It means that the sample has the potential to provide us with more insight into the formation of our solar system and could even shed new light on the origins of life.

The Bennu asteroid is about 500 meters long and is traveling through space at 63,000 mph. The challenging sample collection process involved OSIRIS-REx performing the astonishing feat of touching down on the asteroid before using its robotic arm to gather the material.

“OSIRIS-REx’s many accomplishments demonstrated the daring and innovate way in which exploration unfolds in real time,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters. “The team rose to the challenge, and now we have a primordial piece of our solar system headed back to Earth where many generations of researchers can unlock its secrets.”

While this is the first time NASA has collected a sample from an asteroid, the feat has been achieved before, most recently by the Japanese space agency, which in 2019 used its Hayabusa2 spacecraft to gather material from the Ryugu asteroid before successfully delivering the sample to Earth last year.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
An old NASA spacecraft will crash to Earth on Wednesday
NASA's RHESSI spacecraft.

A retired NASA spacecraft will reenter Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, with some parts of the vehicle expected to crash to the planet's surface.

While most of the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft is expected to burn up as it enters the atmosphere at high speed, some parts of the 660-pound (300-kilogram) machine are likely to survive the descent.

Read more
Scientists observe the aftermath of a spacecraft crashing into asteroid
This artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. The image was created with the help of the close-up photographs of Dimorphos that the DRACO camera on the DART spacecraft took right before the impact. The DART spacecraft collided with Dimorphos at a speed of over 6 kilometres per second (about 22 000 kilometres per hour). After the impact several telescopes observed the evolution of the cloud of debris, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

When NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid last year, it wasn't only a thrilling test of planetary defense. It was also a unique opportunity for scientists to observe an asteroid system and see the effects of the crash, letting them learn more about what asteroids are composed of. Earlier this month, images of the impact captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were released, and now we can see the impact from another view, captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO'S VLT).

The Very Large Telescope is a ground-based set of four telescopes located in Chile, which were able to see the aftermath following the DART spacecraft impacting the asteroid Dimorphos. The images show the cloud of debris thrown up by the impact, called the ejecta, between the time just before the impact on 26 September 2022 all the way through to a month later on October 25. Through this time, the cloud developed clumps and spirals and settled into a long tail formed by radiation from the sun.

Read more
A large asteroid is about to zip between Earth and the moon
An artist's impression of an asteroid approaching Earth

A newly discovered asteroid up to 310 feet wide will hurtle between Earth and the moon this weekend at a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour (27,400 kilometers per hour) relative to Earth.

Asteroid 2023 DZ2 was discovered by astronomers at the observatory of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain, on February 27.

Read more