NASA's space capsule containing asteroid samples has successfully descended on a US desert. This marks only the third example of such samples brought back to Earth following Japan's Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions.

NASA's space probe OSIRIS-REx lifted off from Earth in 2016 and landed on the asteroid Bennu some 300 million kilometers away. It collected rock and dust specimens from the asteroid's surface before returning to Earth.

The spacecraft released the capsule into Earth's atmosphere on Sunday. The capsule opened its parachutes and touched down on the ground in the western US state of Utah.

A team of NASA and other personnel recovered the capsule that measured about 80 centimeters in diameter and roughly 50 centimeters in height.

Technicians will disassemble the capsule and remove a canister which is estimated to contain about 250 grams of asteroid specimens. Staff will then transport the canister to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas before opening it in a special clean room to see what is inside.

Researchers around the world are waiting to analyze the samples to shed more light on how life formed on Earth and how the solar system came into being.

The OSIRIS-REx probe started to fly away from Earth again on a new mission to another asteroid.

The leader of Japan's Hayabusa2 mission was in the US to watch NASA's capsule descend on Earth. Tsuda Yuichi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency congratulated NASA's team on completing the project.

He said a significant new page has been added to the history of what he calls "ultimate space exploration missions" of bringing back asteroid samples to Earth.

Tsuda said he is looking forward to seeing the results of scientific analyses of the Bennu samples.

He said NASA's mission provided a foothold for humans to send probes deeper into space in quest of a better understanding of how the universe works and how life was born.