May 31, 2004 Updated
The First "JAXA Town Meeting"
The first "JAXA Town Meeting" was successfully held in Miyazaki Prefecture on May 29 with Astronaut Takao Doi participating. JAXA would like to express our sincere appreciation to all participants and parties concerned. JAXA plans to have more town meetings in other areas to exchange opinions with you about space activities. Image: Astronaut Takao Doi and Professor Yasunori Matogawa
May 28, 2004 Updated
Result of Hayabusa Earth Swing-by
JAXA checked the orbit of Hayabusa, which carried out an Earth swing-by, and found that it is accurately flying in its intended orbit with an error of only 1 km. Hayabusa is heading for the asteroid ITOKAWA with all onboard equipment working normally. Image: A photo of Japan just before Hayabusa came closest to the Earth.
May 20, 2004 Updated
Hayabusa Earth Swing-by
On May 19, Hayabusa placed itself in a new elliptical orbit toward the asteroid "ITOKAWA" after completing an Earth swing-by. In the first technological verification in the world, we successfully performed a combination of acceleration by the ion engines and the Earth swing-by. Image: The Earth receding into the distance (approx. 95,000km)
May 19, 2004 Updated
Hayabusa acquired images of the earth and the moon.
Hayabusa, which is coming closer to the earth for a swing-by, successfully acquired images of the earth and the moon on the 16th and the 17th. This earth image was acquired at 3:30 a.m. on May 17 (Japan Standard Time, JST). The distance between Hayabusa and the earth at that time was about 910,000 km.