[meteorite-list] Hayabusa DID Successfully Land on Asteroid

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 23 12:34:43 2005
Message-ID: <200511231733.jANHXE501182_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Probe-Lands-Successfully-on-Asteroid/story.xhtml?story_id=113004VQQD87

Japanese Spacecraft Lands Successfully on Asteroid
Factor Magazine
November 23, 2005

Before landing, Hayabusa dropped a small object as a touchdown target
from 130 feet above the asteroid and then descended to within 56 feet of
the surface, at which point ground control lost contact with the probe
for about three hours. But after analyzing data later sent by the probe,
the agency confirmed that it landed on the asteroid within about 100
feet of the landing target.

A Japanese space probe successfully landed and then departed from the
surface of an asteroid, despite an initial announcement that the attempt
had failed, Japan's space agency said Wednesday.

JAXA officials had said on Sunday that the Hayabusa probe, on a mission
to briefly land on the asteroid Itokawa, collect material, and then
bring it back to Earth, had failed to touch down after maneuvering
within yards of the asteroid's surface.

However, on Wednesday JAXA said that data sent from Hayabusa confirmed
that it had landed on the asteroid on Sunday for about half an hour.
However, the probe failed to collect material, JAXA said.

Before landing, Hayabusa dropped a small object as a touchdown target
from 130 feet above the asteroid and then descended to within 56 feet of
the surface, at which point ground control lost contact with the probe
for about three hours, JAXA officials said earlier.

But after analyzing data later sent by the probe, the agency confirmed
that it landed on the asteroid within about 100 feet of the landing
target, JAXA said in a statement.

JAXA Associate Executive Director Yasunori Matogawa said it was the
first time that a probe had successfully landed on an asteroid and then
taken off.

"I think we did a great job," he said.

He said the probe had moved as far as 62 miles from the asteroid but was
now getting closer for a second attempt.

The mission has been troubled by a series of glitches.

A rehearsal was aborted earlier this month when the probe had trouble
finding a landing spot, and a small robotic lander deployed from the
probe was lost. Hayabusa also suffered a problem with one of its three
gyroscopes, but it has since been repaired.

Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 and has until early December before it
must leave orbit and begin its 180 million-mile journey home. It is
expected to return to Earth and land in the Australian Outback in June
2007.

The asteroid is named after Hideo Itokawa, the father of rocket science
in Japan, and is orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. It is 2,300
feet long and 1,000 feet wide and has a gravitational pull of only
1/100,000th of Earth's, which makes landing a probe there difficult.

Examining asteroid samples is expected to help unlock secrets of how
celestial bodies were formed because their surfaces are believed to have
remained relatively unchanged over the eons, unlike those of larger
bodies such the planets or moons, JAXA said.
Received on Wed 23 Nov 2005 12:33:13 PM PST