Hayabusa’s Itokawa comeback: first asteroid samples reach Earth after a seven-year, bumpy voyage

After a seven-year journey plagued by fuel leaks, communications glitches, and a sampling system that failed to fire, JAXA’s Hayabusa capsule returned to Earth in 2010 with a 40-centimeter container carrying the first asteroid samples from Itokawa. Although the sampling mechanism didn’t fire, the touchdown disturbed the surface enough for about 1,500 dust grains to be collected, later identified as Itokawa material and tied to the LL chondrite meteorite class for the first time. The mission proved sample return from an asteroid was feasible and informed its successor, Hayabusa2, with broader context later enriched by OSIRIS-REx findings from Bennu.