Airborne Observation of the Hayabusa Sample Return Capsule Re-entry

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently completed their Hayabusa asteroid exploration mission. Launched in 2003, Hayabusa made contact with, and retrieved a sample from, the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa in 2005. The sample return capsule (SRC) re-entered over the Woomera Test Range (WTR) in southern Australia on June 13, 2010, at approximately 11:21 pm local time (09:51 UTC). The SRC re-entry velocity was 12.2 km/s, making it the second-fastest Earth return velocity behind NASA1s Stardust sample return capsule re-entry in 2006.