Posted: Fri, May 9, 2003, 9:04 AM ET (1304 GMT)
A M-5 rocket successfully launched the first asteroid sample return mission early Friday. The M-5 rocket lifted off from the Kagoshima Space Center in southern Japan at 12:29 am EDT (0429 GMT) Friday and put the MUSES-C spacecraft on a trajectory towards the asteroid 1998 SF36. MUSES-C is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in mid-2005, after completing an Earth flyby next year. The asteroid will spend five months at the asteroid, conducting observation as well as gathering a tiny sample of the asteroid itself. MUSES-C will depart the asteroid in late 2005 and return to Earth in mid-2007. The sample will return to Earth in a reentry capsule that will parachute to the surface in the Australian outback. The mission is Japan's first to an asteroid, as well as the first mission by any nation to return an asteroid sample to the Earth. The launch was the first for the solid-propellant M-5 rocket since the launch failure of ASTRO-E astronomy spacecraft in February 2000.

Related Links:

•  AFP article
•  AP article
•  Reuters article
•  BBC article