Aero-Linx: HAYABUSA
(MUSES-C)
The Hayabusa (the original code name was MUSES-C) engineering
spacecraft was designed to acquire samples from the surface of
near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa (1998 SF36) and return them to
Earth. The main objectives of the mission were to demonstrate the
performance of various technical items such as ion engines,
autonomous navigation, sampling of the asteroid's surface, and
high-speed reentry into the Earth's atmosphere...