Probe fails to land on asteroid
A Japanese space probe on a mission to bring back the world's first rock samples from an asteroid failed to touch down yesterday on its target nearly 300 million km (186 million miles) from earth.
But scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were trying to pinpoint the location of the probe and considering a second attempt at landing.
The unmanned Hayabusa (Japanese for "falcon," had been scheduled to touch down on the surface of the 548-metre-long 25143 Itokawa for just one second after a voyage of two and a half years.
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