A space capsule ferrying the first comet dust samples to Earth parachuted to a pre-dawn landing in the Utah desert Sunday, drawing cheers from elated scientists. The touchdown capped a seven-year journey by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which raced past a comet in 2004 to capture minute dust particles and store them in the capsule for the homecoming. A helicopter recovery team was headed to the landing site to retrieve the capsule and transfer it to a clean room on the base. It will be flown later this week to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where scientists will unlock the canister containing the cosmic particles.