You recall that space probe of ours, Hayabusa II, is on her way back to the earth after her dramatic touchdown on the planetoid Ryugu. JAXA announced today that the vessel successfully ran its main ion engine for about 880 hours to complete the initial phase of boosting, they said.
The probe Hayabusa II is reportedly cruising 239 million kilometers away from the earth at a speed of 24.35 kph.
Hayabusa II will repeat boosting the main engine for the second time later in May to set her course straight to the earth and is expected to land in a desert in Australia in November or December, bringing home the rock particles from the Ryugu.
JAXA will announce the scheduled missions of Hayabusa II by this summer. The mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa says:
” So far so good, but I must say controlling Hayabusa’s accurate course back home is no easy task.”
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