A bright orange parachute that floated back to earth Sunday might have been carrying some of the secrets of the solar system…
(CO Satellite Returns :34)
230925 NASA audio :08 Q:…applause here…
It came down after a months-long journey, and NASA scientists were ready to crack open a mini-fridge-size capsule beneath the canopy, pulling out actual samples of an asteroid. It was the Osiris (oh-SIGH-russ) spacecraft that was built in Littleton, by Lockheed Martin. It grabbed a couple chunks of that asteroid back in 2020, and today the material will be flown from Utah to Houston for more scientists to begin studying them. The Colorado-built spacecraft will be launched again, heading out this year, to sample another asteroid in 2029.