NASA's far-flung OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was successful in its mission to collect a sample from asteroid Bennu, the agency said Friday – but perhaps too successful.

Using a pogo stick-like device with a container, the spacecraft on Tuesday made contact with the asteroid and collected potentially hundreds of grams of cosmic rubble, far more than the originally planned 60 grams, or 2.1 ounces. But newly released images show the container's "lid" slightly stuck open due to the overflow, allowing some sample particles to escape into space.

NASA, University of Arizona, and Lockheed Martin teams would normally have spent Saturday measuring the size of the sample. But because the spacecraft clearly obtained far more than planned and some is actively being lost, NASA's science chief said Friday he decided to bypass the procedure and begin stowing as soon as possible.