NASA Team Captures Hayabusa Spacecraft Reentry

A group of astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other organizations had a front row seat to observe the Hayabusa spacecraft's fiery plunge into Earth's atmosphere. The team flew aboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory, packed with cameras and other imaging instruments, to capture the high-speed re-entry over an unpopulated area of central Australia on June 13, 2010. The Japanese spacecraft completed its seven-year, 1.25 billion mile journey to return a sample of the asteroid Itokawa.

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  Science & Technology

[silentgi771]

"left of coma left of coma" Is the secondary object in the film on the lower right referred to as "coma"? This would be the comet then?

[nasaames]

@silentgi771..When Hayabusa re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, it was to the left of the constellation called Coma Berenices. The comment "Left of Coma, left of Coma" is a call to the people with less sensitive instruments where in the sky the capsule could be viewed. The bright object (upper left) that breaks up is the spacecraft ("Bus breakup") and the small bright dot in the lower right is the sample canister that has a heat shield to protect it and is what was recovered on the gorund.

[gimletmht]

ﾀﾞﾒだ、何度見ても涙が出る。

[princeok512]

High five Japan.

[minmiko1]

この燃え尽きかた・・まるで桜の花びらみたい・・・

[silentgi771]

That is very good information, thank you! .

[mizuho5000]

国家に真の友人はいないってね。

[U2RINJIN]

見事な最後だったな。

胸をうたれた。

[whoisbid]

I always wanted to see this