Plucky Japanese Asteroid Mission Faces Triumphs

Jim's Final Advisories

Spectrum (March 2010): "Bringing Back a Piece of Heaven"

02/04/2009: Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa Enters Into Second Phase Orbit Maneuvering
"The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is doing its best to operate the Asteroid Explore "HAYABUSA" to return it to Earth in June 2010."

02/11/2009: Yomiuri (Tokyo): "New Hope for Return of Hayabusa Space Probe"

11/10/2009: Official Japanese status report on ion thruster problems

Wikipedia link

Jim's three MSNBC stories in 2005 about the asteroid encounter:

06/07/2005: Japan shoots for a piece of an asteroid -- Hayabusa sample-return mission nears critical stage. "A celestial “smash-and-grab” space mission that could become the greatest triumph in the history of the Japanese space program is entering its most challenging stage in deep space." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8131678/

11/14/2005: Asteroid-hopping robot misses its mark
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10013920/

12/09/2005: The real promise of Japan's asteroid mission -- Even if it fails to bring back sample, its innovation should inspire. " Somewhere beyond the far side of the Sun, a battered Japanese space probe is struggling to make its critical condition clear to controllers back on Earth so they can diagnose the latest problems, develop another set of 'work-around' procedures and implement them by remote control. The project's goal, to return from a years-long interplanetary odyssey with samples from an asteroid, has been teetering on the edge of failure for most of the trip, but the Japanese control team has always been able to work something out before. "
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10400707/

01/18/2006 - MSNBC.com: “Scientists overjoyed with comet samples (Stardust)”