Hayabusa passed through third aphelion
Thu Mar 6, 2008 at 09:57 UTC
JAXA's Hayabusa asteroid explorer has passed through the third aphelion of 1.63AU from Sun on February 28, 2008.
During this time the spacecraft has been saving its electrical power consumption due to low luminosity on the solar arrays.
The distance to Earth will increases rapidly and will reach 2.5AU at the end of May.
Hayabusa will make a good turn around the fourth aphelion under the powered flight by the ion engine and will come back Earth in 2010.
Credit: JAXA.
| Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | |
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