Record #00334Space archive
First Asteroid Surface Sample Returned to Earth
Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft delivered dust collected from asteroid Itokawa to Earth on 13 June 2010, becoming the first mission to return a sample from an asteroid.
ARCHIVE VISUAL / 01
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Achievement date
2010
2010-06-13
- Achiever
- Hayabusa spacecraft
- Location
- Asteroid Itokawa; return capsule recovered near Woomera, Australia · 25143 Itokawa · Woomera Prohibited Area · South Australia
- Record status
- VerifiedView verification details ↗Report an issue
Overview
Archive NoteHayabusa launched in 2003 and reached Itokawa in 2005, conducting touchdown operations. Although its intended projectile-based collection mechanism malfunctioned, tiny particles entered the sampler.
After propulsion and attitude-control problems, its sample capsule landed in Australia's Woomera region on 13 June 2010. NASA's deep-space chronology explicitly identifies this as the first asteroid material returned to Earth.
Record history
1 Milestones- First achievementHayabusa spacecraftAsteroid Itokawa; return capsule recovered near Woomera, AustraliaFirst achievement
Sources
Evidence & ReferencesVerification basis and limitations
VerifiedThe record conclusion has sufficient verification support.
Basis: direct confirmation by an authority
Original NASA or national-space-authority records explicitly verify the global first or farthest comparison, not merely an isolated value.
- Verification assessment
- 2026-11-04
- Last editorial review
- 2026-11-04
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