Hayabusa2's touchdowns and the first artificial crater on an asteroid
How a Japanese spacecraft landed twice on a boulder-strewn rubble pile, blasted a crater with a copper projectile, and brought home 5.4 grams.
Published 2026-10-23
When JAXA's Hayabusa2 arrived at Ryugu on June 27, 2018, after launching on December 3, 2014, it found a world far rougher than expected: a spinning-top rubble pile covered with thousands of boulders.[5][4] Finding a safe place to touch down took months of mapping from a station-keeping position about 20 km away.[5]
Touchdown 1: February 22, 2019
On February 22, 2019, Hayabusa2 descended, briefly touched the surface and collected surface material.[1] The first sampling gathered a substantial amount of topsoil, so a planned second surface sampling was later cancelled to reduce risk.[5]
Making a crater on purpose
Surface material on an airless asteroid is altered over time by solar wind and cosmic rays (“space weathering”). To reach fresher rock, Hayabusa2 deployed the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) on April 5, 2019. It shot a copper projectile into Ryugu while the spacecraft hid on the far side of the asteroid, and a small deployable camera watched the event.[5] The result was a crater about 10 meters across — the first artificial crater ever made on an asteroid.[5][1]
Crater counts and the excavated material helped scientists estimate that Ryugu's surface is only about 8.9 million years old.[4]
Touchdown 2: July 11, 2019
After dropping a reflective target marker near the new crater, Hayabusa2 made its second touchdown on July 11, 2019, collecting material that had been dislodged from beneath the surface.[5][1]
Homecoming
Hayabusa2 left Ryugu on November 13, 2019. On December 5, 2020, it released its capsule, which was recovered in Australia on December 6. Inside were 5.4 grams of asteroid — compared with a goal of just 0.1 gram.[1] The spacecraft itself flew on to an extended mission.[5]
Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Ryugu overview page.