Queen Guitarist and Astrophysicist Celebrates NASA’s Milestone Achievement in Space Exploration

Sir Brian May, famed guitarist of Queen and astrophysicist, has expressed his immense pride in being part of the team behind NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission, which successfully collected the first-ever asteroid samples from deep space. On Sunday, a capsule containing approximately 250g of rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu landed in the Utah desert, near Salt Lake City, marking a monumental achievement in space exploration.

Earlier in the day, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule during a flyby of Earth, approximately 63,000 miles from the planet. Sir Brian, who contributed to the mission by helping identify where the spacecraft could collect the sample from Bennu, shared a message of support via NASA TV. He expressed his joy and pride, stating, “I can’t be with you today, I wish I could, but my heart is there with you as this precious sample is recovered. Happy sample return day and congratulations to all who worked so incredibly hard on this mission.”

He also praised his “dear friend” Dante Lauretta, with whom he co-authored the book Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid, a 3D atlas detailing the structure of the asteroid. Sir Brian encouraged his Instagram followers to tune into NASA TV to witness the momentous event of the sample’s return.

This successful mission marks NASA’s first asteroid sample collection and the first such mission since 2020. A portion of the collected sample will be shared with over 200 scientists from 38 institutions worldwide, including teams from the University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum.

Asteroid Bennu, a 4.5-billion-year-old relic of our solar system’s early days, holds vital information that could help scientists understand the formation and evolution of planets. Its carbon-rich composition makes it a significant time capsule, providing a glimpse into the origins of our solar system.