On this day · archive
The asteroid sample that came home
On September 24, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample capsule landed in Utah carrying rock and dust from Bennu. A distant asteroid entered the laboratory by parachute.
8
events in todayish file
2023
OSIRIS-REx delivers a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth.
After the long outward journey and careful collection came a small capsule, a desert landing, and ancient material waiting to be studied.
The final delivery looked compact: a capsule descending by parachute to the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Inside were rocks and dust collected from the surface of asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
Sample return makes distance tangible. Instruments aboard a spacecraft can observe an asteroid where it travels; material brought safely to Earth can be protected in a clean room, divided carefully, and examined by laboratories with tools too large to fly.
Bennu’s grains carry questions about the formation of planets and the early history of water and organic material. On September 24, the mission exchanged the scale of interplanetary travel for the exacting scale of a sample tray.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx capsule carrying samples from asteroid 101955 Bennu lands back on Earth.
The Utah landing delivered rock and dust from Bennu for protected study in laboratories on Earth.
Space
At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded in a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The mass-casualty disaster left families and nations mourning pilgrims gathered for one of Islam’s central rites.
Disaster
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission reaches Mars orbit on the nation’s first attempt.
The arrival made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first country to succeed on an initial attempt.
Space
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes southern Pakistan, killing at least 327 people.
The shock left hundreds dead across southern Pakistan and turned the date into one of national mourning.
Disaster
South African Airlink Flight 8911 crashes near Durban International Airport, killing the captain and injuring the rest of the crew.
The crash killed the captain and injured the remaining crew near Durban’s airport.
Aviation
The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance.
The gathering placed international economic coordination in the foreground during the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Diplomacy
USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.
The launch brought nuclear propulsion to the aircraft-carrier fleet and opened a new chapter in naval engineering.
Technology
The Cochabamba–Santa Cruz highway connecting western and eastern Bolivia is inaugurated.
The inauguration marked a new highway connection between western and eastern Bolivia.
Infrastructure