Genesis Missions Hard Impact . ... Credit Copyright: Genesis Mission , NASA Explanation: A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert in 2004 after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters. ... The saucer, pictured above , was the Genesis sample return capsule, part of a human-made robot Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA itself to study the Sun. ... Despite the crash landing, many return samples remained in good enough condition to analyze and research is ongoing . ...