The cargo contains the largest amount of asteroid samples ever collected. Scientists hope the samples can provide a better understanding of how our solar system formed and how Earth became habitable.
The space capsule was released from the Osiris-Rex probe at an altitude of over 10,000 miles about four hours before landing.
12 km per second
When the capsule entered the atmosphere, about 13 minutes before it reached the ground, it was traveling at 12 kilometers per second and its temperature was close to 2,800 degrees Celsius.
The rapid descent was slowed by two parachutes.
The samples, which consist of dust and pebbles, weigh about 250 grams and were collected on asteroid Bennu four years after the probe was launched in 2016.
Bennu is a coveted space rock, made up of “original material” from the early days of our solar system.
Experts at, among others, the US space agency Nasa believe that life on Earth may have arisen when different substances were combined after meteorites hit. The hope is therefore that the capsule carries with it variants of “the seeds of life from the beginning of our planet”, said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona on Friday.