NASA capsule brings sample from asteroid to Earth for the first time in American history: 'We have touchdown!'

For the first time in U.S. history, samples from an asteroid in deep space that were captured by NASA fell to Earth and landed in the Utah desert on Sunday, ending a seven-year journey.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft flew by Earth on Sunday morning, releasing a capsule containing the sample, from nearly 63,000 miles away. Four hours later, the capsule landed on a stretch of military land as the Osiris-Rex spacecraft embarked on a journey to chase after another asteroid.

"We have touchdown!" Mission Recovery Operations announced, immediately repeating the news since the landing occurred three minutes early. Officials later said the orange striped parachute opened four times higher than anticipated — around 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) — basing it on the deceleration rate.

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