From capturing precious asteroid samples and exploring volcanic moons to navigating mysterious toxic blobs and portraying fictional Space Force battles, October was a captivating month in spaceflight and space exploration, as these images attest.
After traveling through space for 200 million miles, rocky pieces from asteroid Bennu were dropped off on Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in late September. Now, some of those fragments will be put on display for museum-goers to observe firsthand.
About a month ago, pristine samples from an asteroid landed on Earth while enclosed within a tight capsule. The sample canister was designed to keep the main chunk of the asteroid safe during its journey through space, but now teams at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) are struggling to open it to get at the space…
The OSIRIS-REx canister still contains the bulk of the asteroid sample inside, but pieces of the ancient space rock found on the outside have already shown evidence of organic matter embedded within tiny bits of debris.
After being dropped off on Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, pieces of asteroid Bennu will be revealed to the public for the first time on Wednesday.
NASA’s mission to a metal-rich asteroid is back on track after a minor setback. Psyche is now all set to launch on October 12.
Scientists working to open up the sample canister containing rock and dust from asteroid Bennu have run into a problem: there’s just too much of it.
The summer season has ended, but spaceflight continues to be hot, with new views of our Moon and Jupiter’s moon Io, the much-anticipated return of an astronaut and an asteroid sample, and important new rocket engine tests, to name just a few of the many moments that captured our attention in September.
Following a nearly three-year journey through space, the canister containing samples from asteroid Bennu has finally been opened.