Japan Becomes First Country To Bring Asteroid Samples From Space

Japanese Hayabusa-2 mission has landed in Australia's Woomera on December 6 with first rock samples collected from an asteroid. The 2014-launched mission by Japanese Space Agency JAXA gathered samples in July 2019 by blasting a half-mile-wide asteroid Ryugu, which orbits 211 million kilometres away from the sun. While Japan became the first nation to collect samples from space, NASA has collected samples that will be brought to earth by 2023.