TOKYO/MELBOURNE: Japan has retrieved a space probe from Australia’s remote outback after a six-year mission that may help reveal more about the origins of the planets, the Asian nation’s space agency said on Sunday.
A capsule from the unmanned Hayabusa2, carrying the first extensive samples of dust from an asteroid, was flown by helicopter from the outback to a domestic research facility of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The craft’s mission seeks to answer some fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system and where molecules like water came from.
“This is great,” Yuichi Tsuda, a project manager for the agency, told Japanese broadcaster NHK. “It was a beautiful re-entry. We are all very moved by this.”
The agency will hold a briefing later on Sunday.
The spacecraft, launched from Japan’s Tanegashima space centre in 2014, took four years to reach the asteroid Ryugu before gathering a sample and heading back to Earth in November 2019.