Daring NASA mission touches asteroid, awaits confirmation of scooped sample

Working like a reverse vacuum cleaner, the sampler head of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft appeared to operate flawlessly collecting material from the surface of asteroid Bennu. In one of the most ambitious games of tag in human history, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully reached out and touched Bennu, a tiny, top-shaped asteroid that's been spinning through the solar system for a billion years. If all went according to plan, the spacecraft scooped up a bit of material during its brief moment of contact and departed seconds later with precious cargo: rocks and dust dating back to the solar system's birth. Confirmation of a successful sample will take days, but even now, the team knows that the spacecraft touched down on Bennu's surface within 2.5 feet of its target. "We're safely moving away from the asteroid's surface," said University of Arizona planetary scientist Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, after the team confirmed the spacecraft's sample collection mechanism activated.