--- title: "For the First Time In Its History, NASA Successfully Collects Sample From Asteroid" description: "For its first time, NASA has successfully collected samples from the surface of an asteroid using the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Tuesday." date: "2020-10-21" modified: "2020-10-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-successfully-collects-sample-from-asteroid" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "asteroid" - "bennu" - "NASA" - "osiris-rex" - "the digest" --- # For the First Time In Its History, NASA Successfully Collects Sample From Asteroid ![For its first time, NASA has successfully collected samples from the surface of an asteroid using the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Tuesday.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Touchdown! For the first time in its history, NASA has successfully collected samples from the surface of an asteroid, using the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Tuesday. The small spacecraft has been orbiting Bennu, an asteroid 500 meters across, for almost two years. Around 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, the spacecraft completed a "Touch-And-Go" maneuver before firing its thrusters to get back to a safe distance from the asteroid. The lonely space rock was more than 200 million miles away at the time. "We did it," principal investigator Dante Lauretta said during the agency's live broadcast. "We've tagged the surface of the asteroid." https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1318678101358833664 ## Collecting Rocks The sample — which could be anywhere between 60 grams or more than a kilo — will now make its long journey back to Earth, and if all goes according to plan, touch down in September 2023. "This was the key milestone of this mission," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science. "Now it's a few days to figure out how much of this amazing sample we got that we've been thinking about for decades." ## Big in Japan Scientists believe Bennu dates back to the very early days of our solar system, some 4.5 billion years ago, meaning that it could unlock secrets about how water — and thereby life — made its way to Earth. The first ever time anyone collected samples from an asteroid was the Japanese space agency's Hayabusa spacecraft, which brought back only a few micrograms of material from the Itokawa asteroid in 2010. Its successor, Hayabusa2, also collected a different sample from asteroid Ryugu last year. **READ MORE:** [NASA makes history with sample of asteroid soil]() \[*NBC News*\] **More on OSIRIS-REx:** *[Here's How to Watch as NASA Attempts to Grab a Sample From an Asteroid]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()