Fact Sheet
Rocky Rendezvous
Japan's Hayabusa ("falcon") spacecraft transmitted this picture of an asteroid named Itokawa shortly after it rendezvoused with the asteroid on September 12. The image was snapped from a distance of about 12 miles (20 km). Hayabusa will fly in formation with the asteroid for several months. In late November, it will fire small pellets at Itokawa from near point-blank range, breaking off tiny fragments of the asteroid's rocky surface. It will capture a few of these fragments and return them to Earth in June 2007. [JAXA/ISAS]
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