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February 22, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese unmanned spacecraft landed Friday on an asteroid 340 million kilometers from Earth, the Japanese space agency said.
The Hayabusa 2 arrived at a 900 meter asteroid called Ryugu before 8:00 am (23:00 GMT Thursday), according to the Japan Space Agency.
The vehicle began to land on the surface of the asteroid around 1 pm Thursday at a height of 20 km.
The vehicle departed the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan in December 2014 and arrived near the asteroid in June. The vehicle is expected to return by the end of 2020 with samples of the asteroid, the agency said.
The asteroid was originally supposed to land on the asteroid in October, but was postponed as its surface was more rocky than expected.
(AFP)
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