Japanese spacecraft lands on an asteroid 340 million kilometers from Earth

Japanese spacecraft lands on an asteroid 340 million kilometers from Earth

Illustration of the orbit of the probe, released by the Japanese Space Agency (EPA)

Tokyo: the Middle East Online

An unmanned Japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid 340 million kilometers from Earth, the Japanese space agency said on Friday.
The Hiabusa 2 probe arrived at a 900-meter asteroid called Ryugu before 8 am, according to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The spacecraft began landing at the surface of the asteroid around 1 pm Thursday at an altitude of 20 km.
The probe departed the Tanigashima Space Center in southern Japan in December 2014 and approached the asteroid in June.
The probe is expected to return by the end of 2020 with samples of the asteroid.
The plane was scheduled to land on the asteroid in October, but the landing was delayed because the surface was more rocky than expected.

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