In order to collect the sample, the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft lowered its orbit down until it was just short of the surface of the asteroid. Then it fired a “bullet” called the carry-on impactor ...

Let's fire a bullet at an asteroid. This might sound like a plot point from a sci-fi show, but it's about to become reality when Japan's space agency JAXA directs its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to go ...

JAXA Hayabusa 2 Ryugu landing artists conception JAXA Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe recently touched down on asteroid Ryugu and collected a sample from this rock orbiting between Earth and Mars. Now ...

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has successfully pulled off a second touchdown on the surface of the distant asteroid Ryugu. The risky maneuver saw the probe dive down to collect material that ...

It’s headed for another asteroid that JAXA wants to study, but this one will take a bit longer to reach. The journey to the asteroid will take 11 years, so we won’t be hearing much about that ...

JAXA's Hayabusa 2 mission plans to pull off a daredevil stunt of touching an asteroid, picking up a sample of the surface and bringing it back to Earth in late 2020. But there's a small hitch in ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released footage of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft descending and making contact with the primordial asteroid Ryugu. During the rendezvous, the probe ...

Now, as JAXA prepares for the most daring maneuver of the entire mission — a touchdown that will allow Hayabusa-2 to snag a sample of the rock’s surface before heading back to Earth — the ...

JAXA doesn’t have a way to measure how much material Hayabusa-2 collected. However, the agency says that every maneuver went according to plan and that Hayabusa-2 issued the command to shoot its ...

JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which collected a sample from the asteroid Ryugu, is scheduled to return to Earth on Saturday, December 5. Here's how to watch it.

Hayabusa-2 first rendezvoused with Ryugu in June of last year after a 3.5-year journey. Over the last several months, the spacecraft has been circling the asteroid and surveying its surface.

As explained by Kamimori and JAXA releases, what happened after Hayabusa caught up to Itokawa was a series of technical problems that seemed to doom the mission.