The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced just a short time ago that the capsule dropped down to Australia from spacecraft Hayabusa2 has been found. History is made!
It contains the first significant sample to return to Earth from an asteroid. In this case that asteroid was Ryugu.
They haven’t put out any photos just yet.
The AP reports:
Happy JAXA scientists
Hayabusa2 had successfully released the small capsule on Saturday and sent it toward Earth to deliver samples from a distant asteroid that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on our planet, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
Early Sunday the capsule briefly turned into a fireball as it reentered the atmosphere 120 kilometers (75 miles) above Earth. At about 10 kilometers (6 miles) aboveground, a parachute was to open to slow its fall and beacon signals were to be transmitted to indicate its location.
“It was great ... It was a beautiful fireball, and I was so impressed,” said JAXA’s Hayabusa2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda as he celebrated the successful capsule return and safe landing from a command center in Sagamihara, near Tokyo. “I’ve waited for this day for six years.”
JAXA showed the fireball as the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere. This is from a few hours ago:
Hayabusa2 re-enters the atmosphere to drop its payload over Australia
Here’s JAXA’s matter-of-fact summary of today’s events. I’m sure there’ll be more later:
Dec. 6, 2020 Updated
Result of Hayabusa2 Re-entry Capsule Search
Hayabusa2 re-entry capsule re-entered the atmosphere at around 2:28 a.m. on December 6, 2020 (JST). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) searched for the capsule by helicopter and located its landing site in WPA*, Australia at 4:47 December 6, 2020 (JST). Capsule recovery operations will take place in the morning of December 6, 2020 (JST).
* WPA : Woomera Prohibited Area
I got a video from JAXA on the re-entry and was able to get that over to YouTube so I could embed it here (though now dmhlt66 has found a better one and posted it in the comments). You can already see Hayabusa2 appear at about 0:10…
Sorry for the quick slapdashery here, but I’ll try to update with pictures of the capsule find, if they release those anytime soon.
In the meantime, congratulations to JAXA for this big-time contribution to our understanding of the Solar System! What an amazing mission!
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Teeny update, anyway:
