Hyabusa-2 returning to Earth

[brian livesey]

Japan's Hyabusa-2 asteroid sampler is returning to Earth, after a 180 million miles journey to asteroid Ryuga. Japan's space agency, Jaxa, should be complimented on its complex mission to return subsurface material from the asteroid. The craft will return to Earth in late 2020.
The project involved a whole series of procedures, including releasing an explosive charge on Ryugu's surface to expose and collect subsurface material. The mission has been the most technically challenging of any asteroid mission so far.