Space Scan

After the disappointing failure of 4 November, the Japanese astronauts did not lose heart. It was on 9 of this month, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft successfully completed a practice approach to asteroid Itokawa. Dates for three more rendezvous with the space rock are being set now. Mission managers have done this in an effort to return the first-ever asteroid samples to Earth in 2007. The spacecraft was descended to within 70 metres of the 600-metre-long asteroid. They will retry the rehearsal descent - and release the robot, Minerva - on 12 November, then attempt sample collection landings on 19 and 25 November.



Via: Newscientist1629