In the images, which were stitched together to show the spacecraft touching down, the spacecraft's robotic arm appeared to crush some of the porous rocks on the surface. A nitrogen gas bottle fired on the surface appeared to stir up a substantial amount of material in a "rubble shower." The spacecraft then spent five seconds collecting that material before backing away.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is in "good health" after the event which occurred on Tuesday, according to the mission's team. Data and images were sent back by the spacecraft overnight and shared by the agency on Wednesday.
Data from the spacecraft shows it touched down within 3 feet of the targeted location -- all while the spacecraft autonomously worked through commands sent ahead of time, using its advanced navigation system to help it land without assistance from Earth due to a 18.5-minute communication delay.
Although all of the data sent back by the spacecraft so far indicates that everything happened as planned during the "Touch-and-Go" event, called TAG, it will take the mission teams about a week to determine how much of a sample was collected by the spacecraft.
The required amount for the sample is about 60 grams -- about a full-size candy bar -- but the capsule can hold up to 2 kilograms of material from the asteroid's surface.
Since launching in 2016, the mission has been filled with surprises and firsts, challenging its team to think on their feet as the asteroid revealed information that ultimately changed how NASA would attempt its first collection of a sample from an asteroid.
Located more than 200 million miles from Earth, Bennu is a boulder-studded asteroid shaped like a spinning top and as tall as the Empire State Building. It's a "rubble pile" asteroid, which is a grouping of rocks held together by gravity rather than a single object.
The OSIRIS-REx mission stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.
Rather than the sandy beach-like surface the mission team was expecting at first, it turns out that Bennu is covered in building-size boulders. It's also actively ejecting little rocks, pebbles and particles into space -- as first witnessed by the spacecraft's cameras soon after arriving at the asteroid in December 2018.
The spacecraft orbited the asteroid for nearly two years, observing it in detail. This resulted in the closest orbit for a spacecraft around an object, setting a Guinness World Record. It's also the smallest body to be orbited by a NASA spacecraft. And Bennu has now been mapped in greater detail than our own moon or any other celestial body in our solar system.
Due to the rocky nature of the asteroid, which could have spelled doom for the spacecraft attempting to collect a sample from it, the team had to pick its collection site carefully and shrink the landing site to one-tenth of its original size.
Imagine a van that can seat 15 passengers flying through space and approaching a rock that has the height of the Empire State Building and is rapidly rotating.
The la
