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
Wednesday 18
Leonid meteor shower
1923: Alan Shepard born
1989: Cosmic Background Explorer launched
2013: MAVEN spacecraft launched to Mars
Thursday 19
Jupiter 2° north of Moon
Saturn 3° north of Moon
1969: Apollo 12 makes second lunar landing
1996: STS-80 Columbia launched
1997: STS-87 Columbia launched
2005: Hayabusa spacecraft makes first liftoff from an asteroid
Friday 20
1889: Edwin Hubble born
1998: Zarya module launched, first element of International Space Station
2002: First Delta IV launched
2004: Swift spacecraft launched
Saturday 21
First Qtr Moon 11:45 PM ET