NASA spacecraft sent asteroid rubble flying 

NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft crushed rocks and sent rubble flying as it briefly touched an asteroid, a strong indication that samples were collected for return to Earth, officials said Wednesday.

Scientists won't know until next week how much was gathered at Asteroid Bennu, they want at least a handful of the cosmic rubble.

But close-up pictures and video of Tuesday's touch-and-go operation raised hopes that goal was achieved.

It was the first asteroid-sampling effort by the U.S., coming four years after the spacecraft rocketed from Cape Canaveral and two years after it reached Bennu.

Osiris-Rex scored a near bull's-eye, making contact within a yard (meter) of its intended target zone in the center of boulder-rimmed Nightingale Crater.

Osiris-Rex's robot arm made contact with the black, crumbly terrain for about six seconds and penetrated at least one-half-inch (2 centimeters) into the terrain, crushing a large rock in the process, officials said.

Pressurized nitrogen gas fired onto the surface a second later, kicking up a shower of debris ranging in size from 1 to 4 inches (3 to 10 centimeters), according to officials.

The purpose of the gas was to stir up the surface so the spacecraft could suck up as much dust and as many pebbles as possible. At the same time, sticky

"We really did kind of make a mess on the surface of this asteroid, but it's a good mess, the kind of mess we were hoping for," Lauretta told reporters.

This gives the team additional confidence, he noted, that samples were collected.

The spacecraft quickly backed away and, by Wednesday, was a safe 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Bennu.

Several hours passed before the pictures started pouring in.

Lauretta said he was up until the wee hours Wednesday, overjoyed at what he saw. He watched the touch-and-go video about 100 times then went to sleep dreaming about Bennu.

Over the next few days, a camera on the spacecraft will aim at the 12-inch-in-diameter (30-centimeter) sampler on the end of the robot arm, looking for signs of asteroid residue.

If the lighting is right, the camera might even be able to peek into the sample chamber.

The spacecraft will also be put into a slow spin, with its arm extended, to provide a more accurate measure of the cosmic haul.

If fewer than 2 ounches (60 grams) were collected, the team must decide by Oct. 30 whether to try again. A second attempt would not occur until January _ at another location.