This undated photo made available by NASA shows mosaic image of asteroid Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
A robotic NASA spacecraft briefly touched down on Tuesday on the surface of an asteroid 330 kilometers from Earth to collect rock and dust samples.
According to the space agency, the OSIRIS-REx landed on Bennu for 16 seconds after a four-year journey.
If the probe successfully comes home as scheduled in September 2023, it will have collected the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era in the 1960s and 70s.
The mission's leader, Professor Dante Lauretta, said everything seemed to have gone as planned.
[Clip: Lauretta]
"We made it down to the asteroid's surface. We were in contact. The gas bottles fired. We backed away successfully from the asteroid's surface. Emotions are high. Everybody's really proud and we have some work to do to determine how much sample we have collected."
Please send comments to tbsefmnews@gmail.com / copyright © tbs. Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
