November 16, 2020 - Robotic Rock Hound

Robotic Rock Hound In 2003, Japan launched a spacecraft that would attempt something never before done: return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. Named Hayabusa (Japanese for “peregrine falcon”) it arrived at comet Itokowa in 2005 to study the shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history of the asteroid. On November 19, 2005—15 years ago this week—Hayabusa touched down on Itokowa, captured a small amount of material, and lifted off. It repeated this once more before it returned to Earth with an encouraging amount (1,500 grains) of rocky asteroid particles. Following in the footsteps of Hayabusa, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began orbiting asteroid Bennu (seen here from a distance of just 640 meters, or 0.4 miles) in late 2018, and will return a sample to Earth in 2023.

Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (ESA/STScI, STScI/AURA)

Weekly Calendar

November 16 - 22, 2020

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 16

1962: Saturn SA-3 launched
1973: Skylab 4 crew launched on 84-day mission
1974: Interstellar message broadcast from Arecibo radio telescope
2009: STS-129 Atlantis launched

Tuesday 17

Leonid meteor shower

1970: Luna 17 lands on Moon; Lunokhod 1 rover becomes first wheeled vehicle on Moon
2016: Soyuz MS-03 launched carrying ISS Expedition 50/51 crew