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Japan space probe, size of a fridge, flies near asteroid in planet defence test

Japan space probe, size of a fridge, flies near asteroid in planet defence test
South China Morning Post Sunday 05 July 2026, 15:43 UTC By Agence France-Presse 1 min read
Key Points

A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks. The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth. The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft...

A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks. The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth. The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into...
Japan (LOCATION) Japanese (ORG) Earth (LOCATION) Torifune (LOCATION) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ORG) JAXA (PERSON) Nasa (ORG)
Originally published by South China Morning Post Read original →

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