NASA’s first asteroid sample lands in Utah desert

The US space agency NASA brought home the largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth on Sunday, 24 September.

The capsule landed in a training range near Salt Lake City in Utah at around 3.55pm BST.

Aerial visuals show the capsule and its accompanying parachute in the Utah desert.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft was launched by NASA on September 8, 2016. It collected a sample – roughly 250 grams – of rocks and dust from the surface of an asteroid, called Bennu, on October 20, 2020. Osiris-Rex set off back to Earth with the sample on 10 May 2021.