Genesis crashed

The desert gets hit by a flying saucer!

It's too bad about Genesis crashing. I worked on the first part of the mission, in case the chaotic trajectory got the wrong boost from the initial rocket motors. But that part went flawlessly. In fact, the trajectory team performed really well. It's too bad that a failed parachute could jeopardize the whole mission. Why didn't NASA just cover Utah with Nerf?

At first, Anil, a guy I know at JPL, told me right after the crash that "the parachutes were to be set off by firing of
explosives.
So they are afraid that there might be an unexploded bomb in it now and
they are being careful about touching the capsule. It is sitting
half buried into the ground."

I saw the movie of the flying saucer-like capsule plummeting toward Earth at almost 200 mph before it smashed in the middle of nowhere, Utah. How weird... like a drop-off from a space delivery company. Or maybe like the newspaper tossed by the delivery person.

The spacecraft "bus" is still out there. It's going to do an extended science mission, I'm told. Since it dropped all that weight by delivering the sample capsule, it actually has more trajectory maneuverability than when the mission started (more ability to change speed and direction).

Anyway, I hope they are able to get some useful science about the formation of the solar system from the 'mangled capsule'. NASA chief Sean O'Keefe agrees, saying, ""The spacecraft was designed in a way to give us the best chance at salvaging the valuable science payload should we suffer a landing like the one we witnessed."

"Exploration of the heavens is not an easy task," he added.

No, it certainly isn't.