Fresh from the (possible) success of its Hayabusa comet dust hoover, Japan is planning a new space mission – sending a rotating mirrored probe to the currently fashionable planet Mercury.
See that? It might be a dust particle from an asteroid! Or it might be a flake of dried skin from a man in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency factory that built the Hayabusa probe. No one knows yet.
Two weeks ago, NASA released an insanely beautiful video of the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft exploding over the Australian Outback. Turns out the video was planned and shot by a couple of high schoolers from a NASA DC-8 aircraft. Feeling inadequate yet?
NASA captured the re-entry of Japan’s troubled but still successful Hayabusa probe early this morning over Australia. The payload reportedly ejected without incident and parachuted to earth. What you see here is everything else going to hell (by design):
