Hayabusa, launched by Japan's space agency JAXA, appears to have failed in its mission, and hope is dimming for a successful return.

 

The craft was originally designed to land on an asteroid, fire a pellet into it, and collect the resulting debris to be returned to earth. However, data suggests that it did not manage to fire its pellets, meaning any dust it collected would be in tiny amounts.

 

To make things worse, JAXA is unable to maintain complete control of Hayabusa's orientation, suggesting that most of the gas thrusters have failed or frozen. The space agency managed to orient the craft with its ion engines, but this is only a temporary measure, and the ion engines are very weak.

 

It looks like our first chance to get real samples from an asteroid has been flubbed.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8451&feedId=online-news_rss20

sucks. That wouldve been cool, especialy if ameria didnt have to do it this time.