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back to article Hayabusa in fiery return to Earth

Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft last night ended its seven-year mission to asteroid Itokawa, burning up over the South Australian outback after releasing the sample return cannister, which survived the re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Hayabusa's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Pic: NASA Airborne Australian, Japanese and NASA …

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  1. Marc 25
    Stop

    highly irresponsible

    did these people never watch the creep show movies?!

    So we've sent a probe to an asteroid and are now bringing back smaples? Did anyone not think this might possibly be a little bit dangerous? Did anyone even consider that there may be life/virii on that asteroid?

    Maybe even the kind of virus that could possibly wipe out off life on earth?

    Just saying...

    mines the one with the tin foil hat in the pocket.

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  2. David Edwards
    Thumb Up

    The Andromeda Strain

    Bound to be on TV this week!

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    While I wish them the very best of luck

    I have a nasty feeling that Hayabusa has retrieved precisely nothing.

    Fail on this level can quite justifiably be described as epic.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Fail ... really ?

      Come on now. Getting an unmanned craft to land on an asteroid - and - turn to earth can't really be described as a fail - epic or otherwise.

      I wonder if we would have made any scientific/engineering discoveries if every attempt had non-science types shouting "epic fail" from the sidelines.

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      1. ian 22
        Reply Icon

        Genesis? Fail? Not so much.

        While it did land with a thump, Genesis did complete its mission by returning useful samples. This is an example of the old pilot's adage "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing".

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    2. Gianni Straniero
      Reply Icon

      Not so epic as all that

      At least the sample return capsule landed OK, unlike Genesis, which stacked itself into Terra Firma at terminal velocity:

      http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/gm2/multimedia/videos/mpg/live_entry_impact.mpg

      "Negative drogue, negative chute"

      SPLAT

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  4. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alien

    Where's the kaboom?

    There was supposed to be an asteroid shattering kaboom

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    1. Captain TickTock
      Reply Icon
      Alien

      It's gone!

      The illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator! That creature has stolen the space modulator!

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Sweet...

    ....maybe I'm not in as cynical a mood as normal but I agree with Haines, even if the 'cupbaord is empty' I'd still say well done, they gave it a bloody good shot and pulled of a nice firework display for the finale.

    (Which is more than I can say about Saturday's 'performance' BTW!)

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Hmm

    Would be funny (well, more like gruesome, but anyway) if the capsule landed onto top of some animal and went straight through it...

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  7. Yorkshirepudding
    Alien

    eyes open folks

    for symbiotic black stuff folks!

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  8. TeeCee Gold badge
    Headmaster

    "...a lump of rubble..."?

    Surely rubble is by definition lots of lumps? A single lump of rubble would be more commonly called a rock.

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  9. jake Silver badge

    There are several reasons ...

    There are several reasons I sold the Hayabusa (taken in partial trade for services rendered). Probably the biggest reason was the potential for it to return to earth in a shower of sparks ... Oh, wait, you're not talking about the GSX1300R?

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  10. The First Dave
    Boffin

    "Like a meteor"

    In what technical way is this _not_ a meteor? I know it is man-made and all that, but it was basically an extra-planetary object diving, unguided, through our atmosphere. And that was from a scientist...

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Secret mission

    Was to leave Bruce Willis on the asteroid 'just in case'

    Admit it - you haven't seen him recently.

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  12. JeffyPooh
    Happy

    "...retrun"

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/14/hayabusa_retrun/

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  13. Gumby1
    Go

    It was a wikid light show

    I watched the Hayabusa and capsule return from a nearby location, it was fantastic. The sky lit up like a flash bulb going off as the main body and the sample return capsule entered the atmosphere.

    Even if the cupboard is empty it has achieved so much in the use of remote controlled space. The capsule has been recovered. Both heat shields have been recovered which where testing a different form of shielding. I look forward to hearing of the other spacecraft that JAXA has out there now.

    I can even cover the other not so popular topic of " sadville" as this model was made in that VRW

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/gumby_roffo/4690615128/

    1 0
  14. Technicus

    technicus

    Whoa there boys and girls! Hang on uno momento! Did these folks ever THINK about what they just did to one of my fav movies of all time? They like just wrecked the premise of Apocalypse. That sux!

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