Hayabusa "returns home" to the launch site Open to the public at the launch site

December 4, 2010, Kagoshima, Japan - A capsule brought back by the Hayabusa asteroid probe makes return to "home" the Uchinoura Space Center that launched it in 2003 in Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Saturday, December 4, 2010. The Hayabusa was launched from the space center on May 9, 2003, and landed on the asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. After overcoming a series of problems such as a communications outage and engine trouble, it returned to Earth this June, landing in a desert in southern Australia. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) determined that the majority of about 1,500 fine particles found inside the capsule originated on Itokawa and are different from rock particles found on Earth. JAXA has also been analyzing an additional several hundred fine particles found later in the capsule that each measured approximately 0.1 mm wide. The Space Center also display the capsule to the general public on Sunday along with related artifacts such as a parachute, measuring equipment and a heat shield that protected the capsule when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. (Photo by Nikkan Sports/AFLO) [3700] -ty-