Hayabusa Set to Land at Woomera

The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft will flash over the Australian desert, lighting up brighter than Venus as it breaks up and incinerates as it returns to Earth, after releasing a canister containing hoped-for asteroid samples with possible live video feed provided by NASA aircraft.

The landing is now only hours away from the Woomera Prohibited Area following a seven year, 2.5 billion mile mission in space. If the spacecraft did indeed obtain an asteroid sample, it would be the first asteroid sample return mission is space exploration history.

NASA is sending a DC-8 aircraft to record the re-entry event flying over Australia at the time Hayabusa capsule enters the atmosphere. The aircraft plans to provide LIVE re-entry feed between 9:45-9:55 a.m. EDT June 13, 2010. The landing has been revised to 10:11 a.m. EDT (JapanTV).

As Hayabusa and its return capsule streak through the upper atmosphere, they will appear as twin, incandescent fireballs visible for about a minute to anyone within roughly 100 to 200 miles of the re-entry point. Hayabusa's refrigerator-size main body will most likely be incinerated during reentry. But the 16-inch return capsule is equipped with a high-tech heat shield, a parachute to help it land safely and a GPS signal to assist the international recovery team.