20 years ago #OTD, @JAXA_en's Hayabusa spacecraft launched, touching down on the asteroid Itokawa more than 2 years later, and bringing back a sample in June 2010. It was the first mission to return an asteroid sample back to Earth! https://go.nasa.gov/3VOyCXk #NASAhistory
Launch and mission summary for the Japanese Hayabusa mission (with NASA/JPL participation), the first mission to return a sample of material from the surface of an asteroid.
