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Hayabusa

Hayabusa hover.jpg
A computer rendering of Hayabusa above Itokawa's surface
Names Muses-C (before launch)
Mission type sample return
Operator JAXA
COSPAR ID 2003-019A
SATCAT no. 27809
Mission duration 7 years, 1 month and 4 days
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass 510 kg (1,120 lb)
Dry mass 380 kg (840 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 04:29:25, May 9, 2003 (2003-05-09T04:29:25)
Rocket M-V
Launch site Uchinoura Space Center
End of mission
Disposal sample return capsule: recovered
spacecraft: ballistic reentry
Minerva and rover: lost contact
Last contact Minerva: November 12, 2005
Recovery date sample capsule: 07:08, June 14, 2010
Decay date spacecraft: June 13, 2010
Landing date sample capsule: June 13, 2010 (2010-06-13)
Landing site near Woomera, Australia
Flyby of Earth
Closest approach 06:23, May 19, 2004
Distance 3,725 km (2,315 mi)
Sun orbiter
Orbital insertion 01:17, September 12, 2005
25143 Itokawa lander
Landing date 21:30, November 19, 2005
Return launch 21:58, November 19, 2005
25143 Itokawa lander
Landing date November 25, 2005
Sample mass <1g

Hayabusa (はやぶさ?, literally "Peregrine Falcon") was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa, formerly known as MUSES-C for Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C, was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, colour, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid and collected samples in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft on 13 June 2010.

The spacecraft also carried a detachable minilander, MINERVA, which failed to reach the surface.

Other spacecraft, notably Galileo and NEAR Shoemaker both sent by NASA, had visited asteroids before, but the Hayabusa mission was the first attempt to return an asteroid sample to Earth for analysis.

In addition, Hayabusa was the first spacecraft designed to deliberately land on an asteroid and then take off again (NEAR Shoemaker made a controlled descent to the surface of 433 Eros in 2000, but it was not designed as a lander and was eventually deactivated after it arrived). Technically, Hayabusa was not designed to "land"; it simply touches the surface with its sample capturing device and then moves away. However, it was the first craft designed from the outset to make physical contact with the surface of an asteroid. Junichiro Kawaguchi of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science was appointed to be the leader of the mission.


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