BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — After a seven-year mission that launched from Florida’s Space Coast, NASA’s asteroid sampling spacecraft is heading home.
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The spacecraft is carrying a capsule that will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began in the solar system.
NASA said the rocks and dust collected from Bennu will provide a window into a time when the sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago.
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NASA’s Osiris Rex spacecraft will release a capsule about 215 grams of material collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in September, concluding the seven-year mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
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