spacetoday.net: Hayabusa lands, collects sample

Posted: Sat, Nov 26, 2005, 9:20 AM ET (1420 GMT)
Hayabusa spacecraft illus. (JAXA)

Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft landed on the surface of the asteroid Itokawa and apparently successfully collected samples from the asteroid's surface, the Japanese space agency JAXA announced Saturday. Hayabusa touched down on the surface of Itokawa at around 5 pm EST Friday (2200 GMT Friday, 7 am Saturday Japan time) and took off shortly thereafter. During its short stay on the surface the spacecraft did fire at least one pellet into the surface; the pellet's impact is intended to stir up material from the surface that would be collected by the spacecraft. While project officials believe that the spacecraft did successfully collect samples, they won't know for certain until Hayabusa returns those samples to Earth in mid-2007. Hayabusa performed a previous landing attempt last weekend; while officials later determined that the spacecraft did reach the surface, it's sample-collection apparatus apparently did not work on that attempt.