Overview
- JAXA confirmed late Sunday that the Hayabusa2 spacecraft completed a high-speed flyby of asteroid Torifune and that the probe was operating normally after the encounter.
- The flyby was explicitly designed as a rehearsal for planetary defense, testing precise optical-radio hybrid navigation needed to guide or alter the path of a near‑Earth object.
- Hayabusa2 used its ONC-T optical camera, TIR thermal imager, NIRS3 spectrometer and LIDAR to collect imagery and measurements and JAXA released initial optical and thermal images showing Torifune is a two‑lobed body.
- Mission planners targeted a closest approach of roughly 800 meters at about 5.2 km per second, but JAXA says the exact closest distance must be confirmed after more instrument data are downlinked and analyzed.
- The flyby is part of Hayabusa2’s extended mission after its Ryugu sample return and the spacecraft remains on course for a planned 2031 encounter with asteroid 1998 KY26, with scientists expecting the remaining data to inform deflection tactics and models of asteroid surface behavior.