The Planetary Society of Japan : Planetary News

This is the website of "The Planetary Society of Japan"

Planetary News

March 9, 2006

Contact with Hayabusa Was Recovered

JAXA made an announcement on March 7about current status of Hayabusa, a falcon, saying that the spacecraft is now flying at a distance of approximately 330million kilometers from Earth and 13,000kilometers from the surface of Asteroid Itokawa. The robotic falcon had gone astray since early last December due to malfunctioned chemical engines, forcing the mission team to take an emergency step to rescue Hayabusa until spring of 2007.

According to the space agency, a faint radio wave began to reach from Hayabusa around the end of January 2006, suggesting that an unstable attitude of the spacecraft was being improved gradually. The mission team fired xenon-fueled ion engine thrusters to make on-board low-gain antenna direct toward Earth and could regain stabilized communicational contact with the asteroid explorer. Then around the end of last February, the telemetry data began to flow in from Hayabusa to the mission control center in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.

Hayabusa waiting for its return to Earth(artist concept)

Illustration by ISAS/JAXA

With the month turned into March, the situation was bettered. The mission team was able to measure an exact distance between Hayabusa and Earth by using on-board middle-gain antenna and determined the orbit, position and flying velocity of the spacecraft which had wandered in space for three months.

Junichiro Kawaguchi, the project manager, told at the press conference that Hayabusa still has remaining 42-44 kilograms of xenon gas to guarantee its return to Earth. He also stated that the mission team will continue to work hardest to bring the probe back home in June 2010.

2001

2003

September 17

November 5

November 12

December 10