NASA finally has counted up all the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft last fall.

After a seven-year mission, NASA revealed the asteroid sample it collected from a 4 billion-mile journey and brought back to Earth last month.

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A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples has landed in the Utah desert.

Scientists have fine-tuned the path of the asteroid Bennu and say the odds of it smacking into Earth are higher than previously thought but still quite low.

A NASA spacecraft is headed back to Earth with rubble it collected from an asteroid nearly 200 million miles away.

A NASA spacecraft left a mess at an asteroid after grabbing a load of rubble last fall for return to Earth.

Before it begins the long trek home NASA will send OSIRIS-REx past the area where it stirred up the asteroid’s surface.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft tucked more than 2 pounds of asteroid samples into a capsule for return to Earth after losing some of its precious loot because of a jammed lid, scientists said Thursday. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do” to get the samples back safely, said lead scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona. The spacecraft Osiris-Rex won't depart Bennu’s neighborhood until March at the earliest, when the asteroid and Earth are properly aligned. Some of the samples were seen escaping into space, so flight controllers moved up the crucial stowing operation. Based on images, scientists believe Osiris-Rex grabbed 4 1/2 pounds (2 kilograms) of rubble, a full load.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft is stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s jammed open and precious particles are drifting away in space, scientists said Friday. Scientists announced the news three days after the spacecraft named Osiris-Rex briefly touched asteroid Bennu, NASA's first attempt at such a mission. A cloud of asteroid particles could be seen swirling around the spacecraft as it backed away from Bennu. The samples won't make it back until 2023, seven years after the spacecraft rocketed away from Cape Canaveral. Because of the sudden turn of events, scientists won't know how much the sample capsule holds until it's back on Earth.

In this image taken from video released by NASA, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches the surface of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. (NASA via AP)

In this image taken from video released by NASA, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches the surface of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. (NASA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft crushed rocks and sent rubble flying as it briefly touched an asteroid, a strong indication that samples were collected for return to Earth, officials said Wednesday. Scientists won't know until next week how much was gathered at asteroid Bennu — they want at least a handful of the cosmic rubble. Japan has taken asteroid samples twice. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft briefly smooched the surface of a potentially hazardous asteroid more than 200 million miles away on Tuesday successfully conducting the first U.S. asteroid sample attempt but it will be a few days before we know how much it picked up. [RECAP: History made as NASA successfully tags asteroid Bennu to collect sample]“This mission has almost been like clockwork,” spacecraft science team member and UCF Associate Prof. Kerri Donaldson Hanna said. Donaldson Hanna is one of two University of Central Florida faculty serving on the NASA mission, including UCF planetary scientist Humberto Campins. This Aug. 11, 2020 photo shows the sampling arm of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a rehearsal for an approach to the "Nightingale" sample site on the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Studying the asteroid in space up close and when the asteroid sample is dropped on Earth in 2023 will help scientists learn how to deflect a potentially hazardous asteroid like it.

Here is a full list of activities leading up to the asteroid “tag” and after to learn how it went. See a recap of the events leading up to the asteroid “tag” and for reaction from OSIRIS-REx team members after the main event. 🌍 pic.twitter.com/fP7xdOEeOs — NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 20, 20206:11 p.m. OSIRIS-REx ‘go’ to TAG asteroid, sampling happening nowTouchdown is happening and the sampling is in progress, per NASA. “This is history,” an emotional Principal Investigator Dante Dante Lauretta said. “Whatever has happened has already happened,” OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Dante Lauretta said.

This undated image made available by NASA shows the asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. After almost two years circling the ancient asteroid, OSIRIS-REx will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA spacecraft descended Tuesday toward the surface of an asteroid 200 million miles away to collect a handful of rubble for return to Earth. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough, boulder-covered face of the ancient space rock. Bennu’s gravity was too low for the spacecraft to land — the asteroid is just 1,670 feet (510 meters) across.

The spacecraft name stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, a true mouthful even for a NASA acronym. The 500-meter-wide asteroid was chosen for several reasons, including that it could one day-- in a very long time-- hit our home planet. Beyond OSIRIS-REx NASA is only ramping up its study of asteroids. NASA’s Double Asteroid Re-direction Test mission, or DART, is designed to test technology to prevent an impact of a hazardous asteroid. Another spacecraft nicknamed Lucy, is slated to launch in October 2021, will be bound for the Trojan Asteroids.