A spacecraft from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), carrying a large sample from the asteroid "Bennu," started its return journey to Earth yesterday, Monday, after nearly five years in space.
NASA reported that the "OSIRIS-REx" spacecraft began its return process at 2023 GMT, and the journey back to Earth is expected to take two and a half years. OSIRIS-REx collected samples for NASA from the asteroid in October as part of its seven-year space mission. It is worth noting that Bennu resembles a black pile and has a width of about 500 meters, orbiting approximately 290 million kilometers from Earth.
After orbiting the sun twice, the spacecraft is scheduled to reach Earth on September 24, 2023. NASA hopes that the mission, which costs one billion dollars, will uncover secrets about the origins of our solar system.
OSIRIS-REx was launched from Florida in September 2016, taking two years to reach a distance of 20 kilometers from Bennu, followed by another two years to find the ideal spot to collect the sample.
