Launched on August 8. 2001. aboard a Delta II rocket ...
NASA Commentator: "... three. two. one. zero. we have ignition. and we have liftoff of
NASA's Genisis Spacecraft on a mission to retrieve a piece of the sun."
The Genesis spacecraft set out on one of the most audacious science missions ever attempted:
to gather up microscopic particles in the solar wind and return them safely to Earth for study.
After a successful 12:13 pm Eastern time launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
the spacecraft traveled to a point nearly 1 million miles from Earth called the Lagrange 1 point. or "L1."
This is where the gravities of Earth and the Sun are balanced. There. Genesis could collect pristine samples of the solar wind.
This was NASA's first sample return mission since Apollo. when astronauts brought moon rocks back with them.
For Genesis. which did not carry any astronauts. the spacecraft used dozens of solar collector arrays
that would capture tiny solar wind particles and preserve them safely.
Three years after launch. the capsule returned to Earth. and despite a parachute mishap.
scientists were able to study the samples inside.
The results suggest that theories about the formation of the inner planets of the solar system.
including Earth. formed differently than previously thought.