Freeing an Asteroid

A NASA technician frees the final bolts on the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample capsule after months of delays. The bolts had become stuck and couldn't be opened after the capsule parachuted to Earth in October 2023. Engineers designed and built special tools that could open the canister without contaminating the samples of the asteroid Bennu. After a few more procedures, scientists will extract the samples, catalog them, then begin sending them researchers around the world for analysis. [NASA/Robert Markowitz]