Dante Lauretta
NASA spacecraft begins 2-year trip home with asteroid rubble
With rubble from an asteroid tucked inside, a NASA spacecraft fired its engines and began the long journey back to Earth on May 10, leaving the ancient space rock in its rearview mirror.
The trip home for the robotic prospector, Osiris-Rex, will take two years.
NASA Spacecraft Approaches Asteroid, Snaps First Pic
Two years after launching from Florida, a NASA spacecraft is closing in on an ancient asteroid, Bennu, for a sample of space dust that could reveal clues to the start of life in the solar system.
The spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, has even snapped its first, blurry pic of the cosmic body, which is about the size of a small mountain, about 500 yards (meters) in diameter.