A phenomenal engineering triumph for NASA today. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully executed its daring Touch-And-Go (TAG) manoeuvre, briefly extending its robotic arm to contact the rugged, boulder-strewn surface of Asteroid Bennu.



The goal was to agitate and collect at least 60 grams of pristine, ancient regolith from this 4.5-billion-year-old rubble pile. The initial telemetry and imagery suggest the collection head was flush with the surface and fired its nitrogen gas charge perfectly. If the sample is secure, it will be returned to Earth in 2023, providing scientists with an invaluable time capsule from the very dawn of our solar system.