Japan’s asteroid sample retriever rapidly buzzes remote space rock

Japan’s Hayabusa2 craft has just buzzed an asteroid, successfully completing the first objective of its extended mission. Hayabusa2 launched in 2014, and four years later arrived at Asteroid Ryugu. In 2019 the craft sent a pair of landers onto Ryugu’s surface and collected samples that it dropped off in the Australian outback in late 2020.