spacetoday.net: Hayabusa did land on asteroid

Updated: Thu, Nov 24, 2005, 1:31 PM ET (1831 GMT)
Originally Posted: Thu, Nov 24, 2005, 9:30 AM ET (1430 GMT)
Hayabusa spacecraft illus. (JAXA)

Japanese space agency officials said Wednesday that, contrary to earlier reports, the Hayabusa spacecraft did land on an asteroid over the weekend, but failed to collect any samples. Hayabusa had intended to land briefly on the surface of the asteroid Itokawa early Sunday and collect samples of the surface before departing. However, reports around the time of the landing attempt indicated that the landing had failed because of an unspecified technical problem with the probe. JAXA officials said Wednesday that a review of telemetry returned by the spacecraft indicated that it briefly touched down twice within a one-hour period before departing the vicinity of the surface. Unfortunately, a device designed to fire pellets into the surface, kicking up samples that would be collected by the spacecraft, did not operate, although scientists held out hope the probe might have managed to collect some dust kicked up by the landings. JAXA officials said Thursday that they will make a second landing attempt on early Saturday. Hayabusa must depart Itokawa next month so that it can return any samples it collected to Earth.