NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made its historic touchdown on asteroid Bennu Tuesday, retrieving a sample from the space rock that will be returned to Earth.
OSIRIS-REx reached the surface of Bennu at 6:11 p.m. EDT in a mission that NASA says will help unlock the secrets of the solar system.The “tag” or sample collection, was complete at 6:11 p.m.
EDT and the spacecraft left the asteroid’s surface. The Lockheed Martin-built van-sized spacecraft successfully reached a tennis court-sized crater named Nightingale.
Boulders as big as buildings loomed over the touchdown zone. OSIRIS-REx used a robotic arm to grab the sample from Bennu, which is about 200 million miles from Earth. “This is history, this is amazing,” said Dante Lauretta, Professor.
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