Latest Hayabusa Stories

The Hayabusa capsule and bus entered the Earth's atmosphere over Woomera, Australia, on June 13 at 11:21 p.m. local time. From the perspective of NASA's DC-8 airborne observation team, the capsule moved below and slightly ahead of the bus and stayed clear of the spectacular breakup of the bus. After the bus had disintegrated, the capsule continued to create a wake, before reaching peak heating and then fading gradually.That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the...

The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday, landing in the remote Australian outback. The spacecraft, which spent the last 7 years on a mission to explore an asteroid, reached the potato-shaped Itokawa asteroid two years after leaving Earth in 2003.  Its mission was to collect samples of the asteroid, which may hold clues to the origins of the solar system. The spacecraft burned up during re-entry of Earth's atmosphere, but it released a heatproof sample canister before...

The space and astronomy worlds have June 13 circled on the calendar.That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the sample return capsule of the agency's technology demonstrator spacecraft, Hayabusa, to boomerang back to Earth. The capsule, along with its mother ship, visited a near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, five years ago and has logged about 2 billion kilometers (1.25 billion miles) since its launch in May 2003.With the return of the Hayabusa capsule, targeted for June...

PALMDALE, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other organizations are flying to the other side of the world for a front row seat and a rare opportunity to study a spacecraft's targeted fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) A Douglas DC-8 airborne laboratory departed yesterday evening from NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility at...

A planeload of scientists and specialized instruments aboard NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory is scheduled to depart NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility at Palmdale, Calif., for Australia Tuesday evening, June 8, to catch a glimpse of the fiery return of a Japanese spacecraft to Earth on June 13.The group of astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other institutions are flying to Melbourne, Australia to make final preparations for the highly anticipated...

Japanese asteroid probe Hayabusa has now been placed on course to land in Australia for its return to Earth. The spacecraft is returning home from its 2005 venture to the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa has achieved a crucial engine firing to aim the probe at the Woomera Protected Area in southern Australia on June 13. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) said that Hayabusa had successfully completed its third Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM), which is designed to guide the spacecraft for its...

The Hayabusa Japanese spacecraft, which is designed to return samples from an asteroid back to Earth, has completed an important step on its journey back. The unmanned craft achieved the second and largest of four engine firings designed to guide the probe back home. The probe visited the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 in order to capture soil during its journey. However, the mission has been filled with technical glitches affecting the engines and communications with Earth. It is still unclear...

The Japanese government said on Wednesday that the Hayabusa spacecraft, which has journeyed to an asteroid, is expected to return to Earth at a remote site in the Australian outback sometime in June. Defense Minister John Faulkner said the Hayabusa craft is expected to touch down near Woomera in South Australia. "This has been an historic mission," Faulkner said of the Hayabusa, which reached the Itokawa asteroid in late 2005."It is the first time a spacecraft has made...

European scientists hope a proposed mission to capture pieces of an asteroid will shed light on how our Solar System evolved. In the so-called Marco Polo mission, scientists and engineers intend to send a spacecraft to a small nearby asteroid to collect dust and rubble that will be studied to determine how the Solar System came into being.Some speculate the mission could launch sometime in the next decade, in about 2017. Ultimately it is up to the European Space Agency (ESA) to approve the...

The space-borne infrared observatory AKARI, observed asteroid Itokawa last month with its Infrared Camera. The data will be used to refine estimates of sizes of potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.The data collected by AKARI, a JAXA mission with ESA participation, complements that from JAXA's asteroid explorer Hayabusa in late April this year. As AKARI observed Itokawa on 26 July it was in the constellation of Scorpius, and was about 19 magnitudes bright in visible light. The...