TOKYO - Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe made what is believed to be a close flyby of the asteroid Torifune on Sunday, the country's space agency said.
The flyby observation mission, which requires highly accurate navigation, was also aimed at testing technologies needed for planetary defense, or efforts to mitigate the risk of asteroids colliding with Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
According to JAXA, a signal was received from Hayabusa2 after it was scheduled to pass closest to the asteroid, indicating that it was operating normally.
The plan was for the spacecraft to pass approximately 800 meters from the center of Torifune, far closer than most flybys.
Torifune, an elongated asteroid with an estimated diameter of 450 meters, has an orbital period around the Sun of 383 days and is currently about 100 million kilometers from Earth.
Yuya Mimasu, head of the operations team, said at a press conference ahead of the mission that the flyby was about "as difficult as shooting a 1 yen coin" in the northern main island of Hokkaido from the southernmost Okinawa island prefecture.
Hayabusa2 flew past Torifune at around 5.2 km per second. JAXA plans to release data from the probe's observations of the asteroid using its various instruments on Monday.
"I was nervous the whole time. I'm glad we made it through," Mimasu said on JAXA's official YouTube channel.
The agency will examine whether data collected during the mission can be used to accurately guide a probe into a potentially hazardous near-Earth object, such as an asteroid or a comet, and alter its trajectory.
The results of the flyby mission will be explained by JAXA at a press conference to be held on Monday afternoon.
Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, arrived at the asteroid Ryugu, more than 300 million km away, and during a flyby of Earth in 2020 released a sample capsule containing 5.4 grams of surface material that landed in Australia.
Using its remaining fuel, Hayabusa2 began an extended mission and has traveled some 10.7 billion km since 2014. Its next target is the asteroid 1998 KY26, which it is scheduled to reach in July 2031.
