Genesis - the First NASA Sample Return Mission Since the Apollo Program Returned Lunar Rocks
I cried a few minutes after I saw the spacecraft reentering the Earth’s atmosphere.
They weren’t tears of joy nor tears of relief after waiting three years for the samples to return to Earth. They weren’t tears from excitement nor fear.
On September 8, 2004, I sat in a hot auditorium at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, surrounded by my co-workers and their families. My parents, new boyfriend, and his mom sat on either side of me. They packed us shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. The audience squirmed and murmured to each other over the announcer.
Excitement hung in the stale air. I cursed the 1950s air conditioning and waited in anticipation.
Sample return day
Genesis was bringing back solar wind particles, the first sample return mission since the Apollo Program brought back rocks from the moon. We had been here a few hours, but some of us in the Auditorium had been waiting even longer. Some had been waiting since August 8, 2001…
