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Post date: Jun 13, 2010 9:23:38 PM
Although the grab mechanism failed, dust may still have found its way inside
The Hayabusa mission was launched to asteroid Itokawa in 2003, spending three months at the 500m-long potato-shaped space rock in 2005.
Analysis has shown the Hayabusa spacecraft's capture mechanism malfunctioned at the moment it was
supposed to pick up the asteroid rock fragments.
ASTEROID 25143 ITOKAWA
ASTEROID 25143 ITOKAWA
Hayabusa returned astonishing images from its encounter with Itokawa
The 500m-long Itokawa has many boulders covering its surface
The biggest is 50m wide; it is nicknamed 'Yoshinodai'
Probe landed, back to earth
source: news.bbc.co.uk
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