Hayabusa, Japan's space probe that challenged to collect sample of rocks on an asteroid as an unprecedented attempt in human history, has reached to an trajectory to enter Earth's gravitational sphere, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on January 14. With this, the chance for Hayabusa to return to Earth is almost definite as well as enhanced possibility to collect its capsule with collected rock sample.
Hayabusa was launched in May 2003, headed for asteroid Itokawa orbiting between Earth and Mars; it succeeded two times of landing and lift off from the asteroid. The probe encountered mechanical trouble two times and its scheduled return to Earth was prolonged three years.
On January 13, JAXA succeeded to move the probe to trajectory to pass inside Earth's gravitational sphere, or about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. As of January 14, Hayabusa is about 59 million kilometers away from Earth. It will keep thrusting of its main engine, electric ion unit, by mid March to approach Earth more. Hayabusa will reach Earth in June.
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