🚀What will NASA learn from its first asteroid sample?

Hi friends, it’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero following up on scientists working to uncover NASA’s first asteroid samples collected in space and brought to Earth.

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission launched from the Space Coast in September 2016. Then, after touching the asteroid Bennu in 2020, OSIRIS-REx came home landing a week ago in the Utah desert. NASA has said Bennu may hold clues to how life began on our planet.

Since the spacecraft landed, NASA says it took the sample of rocks and dust to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Now, the space agency updates us that the evaluation of the sample is going slowly, “but for the best reason.”

A news release reads the amount of particles inside the canister lid pictured above is even more than scientists expected 🚀.

“The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead said. “It’s really spectacular to have all that material there.”

NASA says the first “quick-look analysis” will give an initial understanding of the collection including what scientists expect to find when the bulk of the sample is revealed.

NASA has said it will share more about the sample with the public as soon as next week!

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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.

Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.

Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).

Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!

From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)

Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.

After seven years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.

Have a great launch into the rest of your week!