spacetoday.net: Japanese asteroid landing attempt fails

Posted: Sun, Nov 20, 2005, 9:27 AM ET (1427 GMT)
Hayabusa spacecraft illus. (JAXA)

An attempt by a Japanese robotic spacecraft to land briefly on an asteroid apparently failed, although the cause of the failure remains unclear. The Hayabusa spacecraft was scheduled to touch down on the surface of the asteroid Itokawa on Saturday, remaining there just long enough to collect samples of the surface. However, telemetry radioed back to Earth from the spacecraft indicated it made it no closer than 17 meters to the surface before moving away. Officials with the Japanese space agency JAXA said they did not believe the spacecraft landed on the surface, but are unsure of what kept the spacecraft from landing, and if it will be possible to make another landing attempt. JAXA had planned to make two landings on the asteroid to collect samples for return to Earth. Hayabusa has suffered a number of problems during its mission, including the failure of reaction control wheels used for attitude control and an aborted landing rehearsal earlier this month. Hayabusa did perform the landing rehearsal last weekend, releasing a 600-gram probe intended to land on the surface, but a problem with the deployment kept the probe from reaching the surface.