MARIANNE GUENOT, BUSINESS INSIDER 12 MAY 2021 A spacecraft carrying around 56.70g of dust from the surface of an asteroid is on its way back to Earth. The spacecraft, called OSIRIS-REx, launched its thrusters for 7 minutes on Monday to leave the asteroid Bennu, NASA said in a statement on Monday.
The probe had collected 60 grams, or about 2 ounces, of carbon-rich space dust, NASA said. This is the largest sample collected since the manned Apollo missions to the Moon, the BBC reported. A video from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, shows what the next steps are for the spacecraft: If all goes to plan, the spacecraft should circle the Sun twice before it comes close to Earth.