In 2023, NASA made headline news when it returned its first sample from an asteroid. The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, traveled away from Earth and toward the asteroid Bennu. It touched down on that asteroid and scooped up a sample of rock and dust from its surface, before turning around and traveling back to Earth. In September 2023, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was approaching Earth. It jettisoned its capsule containing the sample. This capsule traveled through the Earth’s atmosphere,
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