Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Hayabusa2's first touchdown rehearsal

Hayabusa2's first touchdown rehearsal
Hayabusa2's first touchdown rehearsal On 11-12 September 2018, Hayabusa2 performed a dry run of most of the sequence it would need to perform in order to deposit a rover on the surface of Ryugu. The sequence aborted when the spacecraft got within 600 meters of the asteroid. On the way down, it observed its own shadow growing on the asteroid's surface. The images for this animation were taken by the wide-angle optical navigation camera. JAXA / Emily Lakdawalla