Japanese Space Agency Unveils Asteroid Hunter | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Mon, Sep 08, 2014

Japanese Space Agency Unveils Asteroid Hunter

Launch Of The Probe Expected Later This Year

The Japanese space agency JAXA has shown its asteroid hunting spacecraft to the public for the first time. Launch of the Hayabusa-2 probe is expected sometime later this year.

The French news service AFP reports that the spacecraft should reach its target, the 1999JU3 asteroid, sometime in 2018. Once there, it will fire a projectile into the body, scoop up pieces of the asteroid, and return them to Earth. The agency hopes to have the samples returned for analysis  sometime in 2020.

In a news conference, Hitoshi Kuninaka, project leader at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said he is "grateful" that the spacecraft is nearly complete.

Hayabusa-2 is a follow-on spacecraft to the Hayabusa spacecraft that first gathered samples of an asteroid for JAXA in a seven-year mission described as "trouble-plagued." It returned to Earth with dust samples in 2010.

JAXA says that analysis of the materials could help determine the origins of the solar system.

(Image provided by JAXA)

FMI: http://global.jaxa.jp/

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Rutan Long-EZ

He Attempted To Restart The Engine Three Times. On The Third Restart Attempt, He Noticed That Flames Were Coming Out From The Right Wing Near The Fuel Cap Analysis: The pilot repor>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ICAS Perspectives - Advice for New Air Show Performers

From 2009 (YouTube Edition): Leading Air Show Performers Give Their Best Advice for Newcomers On December 6th through December 9th, the Paris Las Vegas Hotel hosted over 1,500 air >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.28.25)

Aero Linx: NASA ASRS ASRS captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community. The ASRS is an i>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.28.25)

“For our inaugural Pylon Racing Seminar in Roswell, we were thrilled to certify 60 pilots across our six closed-course pylon race classes. Not only did this year’s PRS >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC