NASA Actually Booped An Asteroid & Canada Gets To Keep A Piece Of It
Wow! NASA's Bennu mission was made possible by the Canadian Space Agency so Canada gets to keep a part of the asteroid.
OSIRIS-REx is NASA's first asteroid sampling spacecraft and on October 20, the craft successfully approached asteroid Bennu and collected its materials without landing.
The space agency is actually calling this a "boop" and it wouldn't have been possible without Canada.
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when the sample will come to Earth
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contributed a laser system to the mission which was able to scan the asteroid.
This allowed for the space craft to scan and create a high-resolution 3D surface map that scientists used to choose the sample site.
Since the CSA played a role in the mission, Canada will get to keep part of the asteroid material.
OSIRIS-REx will leave Bennu next year and is expected to send the sample to Earth on September 24, 2023.
This isn't the first time that Canada and NASA have teamed up recently.
They just signed a pact to get to the moon and part of a crater on Mars where this year's rover will land was named after a national park here.