Japan Is Landing on an Asteroid Today and You Can Watch It Live!

By Meghan Bartels 2 hours ago

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is touching down on an asteroid called Ryugu to grab a sample — and you can watch the action live.

The maneuvers will be broadcast live by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which manages the spacecraft, beginning today (Feb. 21) at 4:45 EST (2145 GMT). You can watch live on Space.com courtesy of JAXA, or through the agency's YouTube.

JAXA began descent operations at Ryugu on Feb. 21 around 6:30 a.m. local time at JAXA's headquarters (Feb. 20 around 4:30 p.m. EST, 2130 GMT), with the decision to approach the asteroid coming about 6 hours later.

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Hayabusa2 is scheduled to touch down around 6:06 p.m. EST (2306 GMT). At the surface, it will shoot what is essentially a bullet into Ryugu's gravelly surface and suck up the resulting debris to bring back to Earth.

More:
https://www.space.com/hayabusa2-asteroid-ryugu-landing-webcast.html?utm_source=notification