NASA robot lands on asteroid - 28th October 2020

This very old asteroid is called Bennu. Now, a NASA spacecraft has collected rock from it.

The US government space agency’s ship is called OSIRIS-REx. This robotic spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 8th September 2016. It flew 330 million kilometres through space to Bennu.

Dante Lauretta: “And so this is what is actually at the end of that long robotic arm. You can see it's about 30 centimetres or about a foot in diameter. And this is what we placed onto the surface of the asteroid.”

OSIRIS-REx landed on Bennu with a robotic arm. This damaged the asteroid’s rocky surface. Then, the robotic arm collected this material from the asteroid.

The robot collected a total of 400 grammes of rock samples. Then, OSIRIS-REx started its journey back home.

Now, the spacecraft is returning to Earth. It is expected to arrive in 2023.