NASA's first asteroid samples land in Utah desert

This shot off a NASA live feed shows NASA safety team members approaching the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample's return craft sitting in the Utah desert at Dugway, Utah, on September 24, 2023. © Handout, AFP

NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.

In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the mothership set off after another asteroid.