Japanese spacecraft 'Hayabusa' - spectacular re-entry into Earth's atmosphere (viewed at 39000')
After travelling six billion kilometres in seven years, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa (meaning Peregrine Falcon) incinerated on re-entry after jettisoning a capsule expected to contain the first asteroid dust ever collected. The capsule parachuted to Earth near Woomera, the Australian Defence Force facility supporting the western world's largest defence systems test and evaluation range Hayabusa, the $US200 million ($235.74 million) project launched in 2003, landed on the asteroid in 2005 and is believed to have collected samples of material from the surface that may shed light on the solar system's origin and evolution. Scientists hope to study how and when the asteroid was formed, its physical properties, what other bodies it may have been in contact with, and how solar wind and radiation have affected it. Hayabusa was originally due to return to Earth in 2007, but a series of technical glitches -- including a deterioration of its ion engines, broken control wheels, and the malfunctioning of batteries -- forced it to miss its window to manoeuvre into the Earth's orbit until this year. If Hayabusa is indeed carrying asteroid samples, it would be only the fourth space sample return in history -- including moon matter collected by the Apollo missions, comet material by Stardust, and solar matter from the Genesis mission. NASA Press Release below: MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- A group of astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other ...
