Japan’s Hayabusa2 fly-by of Torifune marks a leap in asteroid defence, showcasing the country’s growing space prowess and “goodwill science” role vital for protecting Earth from cosmic threats.
The space probe, named after the Peregrine falcon in Japanese, successfully flew within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of the asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on July 5.
JAXA said Hayabusa2 performed as expected and responded to all instructions from land-based mission control, about 100 million km away.
According to Yuya Mimasa, head of the mission team, the fly-by had been “as difficult as hitting a 1-yen coin placed in Hokkaido from Okinawa”.
Masaki Fujimoto, director of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronomical Science, hailed the expedition.
“We were able to demonstrate to the world that we possess the technology to change the orbit of an asteroid heading towards the Earth,” he told reporters on July 6.