NASA Probe Leaking Asteroid Samples After Hearty Collection

This undated image made available by NASA shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's primary sample collection site, named "Nightingale," on the asteroid Bennu. After almost two years circling the ancient asteroid the spacecraft descended to the surface and snatched a handful of rubble on Oct. 21, 2020. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona via AP

WASHINGTON—The U.S. probe that collected a sample from an asteroid earlier this week retrieved so much material that a rock is wedged in the container door, allowing rocks to spill back out into space, NASA officials said on Friday.

The robotic arm of the probe, OSIRIS-REx, on Tuesday night kicked up a debris cloud of rocks on Bennu, a skyscraper-sized asteroid some 200 million miles (320 million km) from Earth, and trapped the material in a collection device for the return to Earth.