Monday update: This story has been updated with comments from OSIRIS-REx officials about the drogue parachute.
A small capsule carrying pristine specimens from an asteroid parachuted to a landing in the Utah desert Sunday, capping a seven-year voyage through the Solar System to bring home samples for eager scientists seeking clues about the origins of life.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission brought back the largest unspoiled sample of material ever returned to Earth from beyond the Moon, probably on the order of about 250 grams, or roughly 8 ounces, according to estimates. The spacecraft collected the samples from asteroid Bennu, a loosely bound rocky world about the size of a small mountain, during a touch-and-go landing in October 2020.
It's the third asteroid sampling mission in history, and the first for the United States, following two Japanese spacecraft that returned a smaller quantity of asteroid specimens to Earth in 2010 and 2020.
The OSIRIS-REx mission was tinged with suspense and drama from start to finish. The project's original lead scientist died in 2011, months after NASA selected his OSIRIS-REx mission concept for funding. In 2016, the spacecraft was stacked on top of its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket awaiting liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a ground test barely a mile away. That sent thick plumes of black smoke over the Atlas V launch pad and briefly knocked offline an air conditioning system needed to keep OSIRIS-REx safe before launch.
Then, in 2020, when OSIRIS-REx collected its sample from Bennu, the spacecraft overfilled its collection chamber. The asteroid was made of much looser material than scientists predicted, so diffuse that the spacecraft could have kept plowing into Bennu had it not performed a pre-planned back-away maneuver.
Sunday make-or-break sample return also had everyone's hearts pumping. At the end of its 4 billion-mile celestial journey, the OSIRIS-REx mothership spacecraft released a 32-inch-wide (81-centimeter) sample return capsule early Sunday as it darted toward Earth. More than four hours later, the capsule landed at the US Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range southwest of Salt Lake City at 8:52 am local time (10:52 am EDT or 14:52 UTC).