Touchdown! Japan successfully lands its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on asteroid Ryugu.

JAXA Hayabusa2 Ryugu landing,
artist’s conception JAXA

The fact that most drivers occasionally have trouble maneuvering a car into a tight space makes it all the more remarkable that the very same species has just parked a satellite onto a small boulder-strewn asteroid hurtling through the universe millions of miles from Earth.

The astonishing feat was achieved by Japan’s space agency (JAXA) at about 3 p.m. PT on February 21 when it landed Hayabusa2 on the asteroid Ryugu.

The successful touchdown on the 900-meter-wide space rock was met with enthusiastic applause at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center near Tokyo, and allowed the team to proceed to the next stage of the highly complex mission, which should ultimately see a sample from the space rock returned to Earth.

By Trevor Mogg

Full story at Digital Trends.