Hayabusa Returns!

By Nancy Atkinson - June 13, 2010 at 10:23 AM UTC | Space Exploration

Japan's little spacecraft that could returned to Earth, putting on quite a show over the Australian outback, making a fiery reentry. Hayabusa returned around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in the Woomera Prohibited Area of South Australia. In the video you'll see a little speck of light ahead of the falling debris: that's the sample return canister with, hopefully, some precious goods aboard – samples from asteroid Itokawa. The canister separated about three hours before reaching Earth, and returned to Earth via parachute. The canister has been recovered, and will be taken to Japan where scientists will open it to find out if there is anything inside.

The return was monitored scientists from around the world, including a NASA crew on aboard a DC-8 airplane who took the video footage.

I got a note from Col Maybury from radio station 2NUR in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. He said the final message from a Defense debriefing in Woomera at 2:30 am Monday, Woomera time was that all reports indicated the sample capsule had landed softly, and all appeared well.

Col reported that during the briefing, Alan Cole, Regional Manager of Defense Public Affairs, Woomera, told of a brilliant light throwing shadows on the ground as the spacecraft approached. The recovery was successful and it is hoped pristine material from the early days of the solar system will be available for analysis by scientists around the world.

JAXA has said that even one grain of sand like material can be cut into 100 or more samples that can be distributed world wide for analysis.

Col said the Ghan train, (

which we talked about in our previous Hayabusa article

) a passenger train that travels across Australia, would have had an outstanding view of the re-entry, a front row seat, as it crossed the lonely central Australian desert on its normal north south crossing of the Australian continent.

"It is not often a train and spacecraft cross paths in the remote, dark, clear and cold desert skies," Col said. "The passengers would have been enthralled."

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com