NASA Is Dropping an Asteroid Sample Down to Earth—and It's Landing in Utah

NASA is in the final stages of preparation to send its first sample of asteroid material collected in space down to Earth.

The material was collected by NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) capsule from Bennu, an asteroid scientists first discovered in 1999. OSIRIS-Rex collected the material in October 2020 at a targeted spot on Bennu's surface that NASA calls Nightingale.

"Scientists believe that the asteroid Bennu is representative of the solar system's oldest materials formed in large, giant stars and supernova explosions," Erin Morton of NASA's Office of Communications said Friday. The Bennu sample is expected to reveal information about space that could "increase our understanding of how our solar system formed and how it's evolved."

The material will arrive this weekend on Earth. NASA will be providing live coverage of its landing on Sunday starting at 10 a.m. ET. Those interested in watching can tune in to NASA's channels on YouTube, Facebook or X, formerly Twitter.

The sample is expected to land at the U.S. Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range, a military base located less than 100 miles west of Salt Lake City, scientists said during a Friday afternoon press conference attended virtually by Newsweek.

Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx's principal investigator, told reporters the pursuit of this asteroid sample has been "almost a two decade-long dream."

In anticipation of the sample's arrival, NASA scientists said they made a "minor adjustment" to its trajectory earlier this week. They expressed confidence that their final checks this weekend will enable them to release the sample from space, where it currently sits on OSIRIS-REx, and send it on its way to the designated Utah landing target. The sample will travel about 63,000 miles in about four hours for the journey, according to The Associated Press.

When the sample gets closer to landing, parachutes will be deployed to slow its progress to about 10 or 11 miles per hour, OSIRIS-REx program manager Sandra Freund of Lockheed Martin said during the press conference.

OSIRIS-REx project manager Rich Burns of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said helicopters will then fly in the researchers who will retrieve the sample. They'll wear masks as a precaution, to make sure the battery inside the capsule holding the sample isn't releasing toxic fumes, and ensure the capsule is cool enough to pick up for transport.

The team of scientists will also check for any potential materials that could impact the integrity of the asteroid sample.

"For example, if the sample capsule were to open, even briefly, we would want to make sure any sample material that made it onto the Utah desert floor was quickly identified and recovered, so that we could still extract meaningful science from it," Lauretta said.

The sample's ultimate destination will be NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where scientists will assess the capsule's contents in a lab set aside specifically for Bennu material to avoid contamination.

Further information on the collected material will be shared with the public on October 11, NASA announced earlier this month.