I Fall to Pieces
This still from a NASA video shows the Hayabusa spacecraft as it burned up over Australia during re-entry on June 13, 2010 to cap a 7-year mission to the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa ejected a sample return capsule (bright dot at lower right) before burning up. It landed in the Australian outback and has been recovered.
Waiting on a Friend
Hayabusa's sample return capsule and parachute lie on the ground in Australia's Woomera Prohibited Area.
Hayabusa Asteroid Particles
This scanning electron microscope image shows mineral particles from asteroid Itokawa (red) collected from a sample container from Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft, which visited the asteroid in 2005 and returned to Earth in June 2010.