The Hayabusa2 probe successfully settled into an observation position 20 kilometres (12 miles) above the Ryugu asteroid, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Wednesday. The mission will depart from Ryugu in December 2019 with the intention of returning to Earth with the asteroid samples in 2020. The spacecraft, which has flown nearly 280 million kilometers since taking to the skies, is part of a sample return mission aimed at landing on the distant space object, retrieving surface samples and heading back to Earth, just like how its predecessor, the original Hayabusa mission, did from an asteroid called Itokawa.
Japanese space probe Hayabusa2 arrives at its target, 162173 Ryugu, an Apollo asteroid. It is planned to return material from the asteroid to Earth by the end of 2020.