Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Reaches 'Spinning-Top' Space Rock Ryugu (space.com)

Zorro shares a report from Space.com: The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 has successfully rendezvoused with Ryugu, beginning an 18-month stay at the diamond-shaped asteroid. Launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, in 2014, the probe will poke, prod and even impact the asteroid, deploying a small lander and three rovers. It will then blast an artificial crater to analyze material below the asteroid's surface. After that, the probe will head back to Earth, arriving near the end of 2020 with samples in tow.

Hayabusa2 automatically fired its thrusters this morning (June 27) at 9:35 a.m. local Japanese time (8:45 p.m. on June 26 EDT, or 1245 GMT), bringing the probe within a constant 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the asteroid, according to a statement from JAXA. The Hayabusa2 team will have to select the best place for the probe's lander and rovers based on the space rock's spinning-top-like shape and its rotation; the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) asteroid rotates perpendicular to its orbit, completing a full rotation every 7.5 hours.

Comments

days ago

[AndyKron]

Better late then never I suppose. I've already seen this, posted it on Facebook and forgot about it days ago

Re:A few relevant comments

[Joce640k]

A few years ago, a Japanese probe missed Venus, an however easier target...

What about the Mars orbiter that mixed up metric/imperial and thrust itself into the planet instead of going around it? How amateur was that?

(and what sort of country still uses imperial units in the 21st century?)