NASA's Parachute Wiring Error Causes High Drama in Asteroid Sample Return Mission

TL;DR Summary
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission successfully returned asteroid samples to Earth, but not without moments of high drama. During the landing, a parachute malfunction occurred when the drogue chute failed to deploy at the expected time. However, the main parachute eventually opened, leading to a safe landing in the Utah desert. An investigation revealed that the parachute deployment actions occurred out of order due to a miscommunication in the design plans. Despite the mishap, scientists are analyzing the asteroid materials, which have shown promising signs of carbon and water content.
- Crossed wires led to high drama as NASA returned asteroid samples to Earth Ars Technica
- NASA Discovers Cause of Chute Glitch in Asteroid Sample Landing Gizmodo
- OSIRIS-REx parachute deployment affected by wiring error SpaceNews
- NASA engineers got their parachute wires crossed for OSIRIS-REx mission The Register
- NASA finds likely cause of OSIRIS-REx parachute deployment sequence Phys.org
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