Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

NASA’s Genesis spacecraft crashed into the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in 2004.
Image credit: NASA

Yes, it came from outer space, but with unintended consequences.

It was in September 2004 when NASA’s Genesis return sample capsule tumbled from the sky and slammed into the Utah desert, a remote part of the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground.

The upshot of that downfall: Over 20 years of painstaking work by scientists sorting through contaminated leftovers due to the spacecraft’s high-speed, full-stop slam into terra firma.

A damaged Genesis undergoes close scrutiny as researchers salvage the mission’s scientific goals. Image credit: NASA

Late “breaking” new

You could dub it “late breaking” news about Genesis science findings after two decades of intensive study, findings that are slated for discussion at this week’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) being held in Washington, D.C.

For details, go to my new SpaceNews story on what Genesis researchers are reporting via – “Shattered Genesis spacecraft yields scientific discoveries 20 years after crash landing” – at:

https://spacenews.com/shattered-genesis-spacecraft-yields-scientific-discoveries-20-years-after-crash-landing/