Scrub through 6 real mission milestones to watch JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft approach asteroid Ryugu, collect two surface samples, fire an impactor to create an artificial crater, and send its capsule back to Earth.
Each stop on the slider is a real, independently published mission milestone - not a smooth simulated flight. Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom on the scene above.
For a different real asteroid mission that deliberately impacts its target instead of sampling it, see the DART Asteroid Deflection 3D Explorer.
Hayabusa2 Ryugu Sample Return 3D Explorer
This browser explorer replays JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission to near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, one real mission milestone at a time, from its 2014 launch to the 2020 landing of its sample-return capsule.
Hayabusa2 launched on an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on 2014-12-03 and arrived at Ryugu, a diamond-shaped ("spinning-top") C-type near-Earth asteroid, on 2018-06-27. Ryugu measures about 1,004 m across its equator and about 875 m pole-to-pole, and completes one rotation roughly every 7.63 hours. On 2019-02-22 the spacecraft made its first touchdown, briefly firing a small tantalum projectile to collect surface material. On 2019-04-05 its Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) released a copper projectile that struck the surface, creating an artificial crater about 14.5 m across - the first time a spacecraft deliberately excavated an asteroid to sample material never exposed to space weathering. On 2019-07-11 Hayabusa2 touched down a second time near that crater site to collect the freshly exposed sub-surface material. The sample-return capsule separated and landed near Woomera, South Australia on 2020-12-06, delivering about 5.4 g of asteroid material for laboratory analysis, while the spacecraft itself continued on to an extended mission. These figures come from JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission pages and the peer-reviewed publications Watanabe et al. 2019 (Science) and Yada et al. 2022 (Nature Astronomy).
- Milestone slider (6 stops) moves the spacecraft along a procedural trajectory around a lathe-modeled Ryugu body
- Each stop shows its real date, name, and mission fact
- A running table lists all 6 milestones at once, with the active one highlighted
- An orange mark appears on Ryugu's surface once the SCI impactor has created its artificial crater
- Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
| Milestone | Date | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Launch from Tanegashima | 2014-12-03 | H-IIA rocket, JAXA |
| Arrival at Ryugu | 2018-06-27 | Equatorial diameter about 1,004 m |
| First touchdown - sample collection | 2019-02-22 | Tantalum projectile fired into sampler horn |
| SCI artificial crater created | 2019-04-05 | Crater about 14.5 m in diameter |
| Second touchdown - sub-surface sample | 2019-07-11 | Collected material from the crater site |
| Sample-return capsule lands on Earth | 2020-12-06 | About 5.4 g delivered near Woomera, Australia |
For a different real asteroid mission that deliberately impacts its target rather than sampling it, see the DART Asteroid Deflection 3D Explorer. For the general structure of the belt these bodies come from, see the Asteroid Belt 3D Explorer.
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached.
This is an educational approximation - Ryugu's body and the spacecraft's trajectory are procedural shapes, not a precise shape model or a physically simulated flight path, and the scene does not interpolate a continuous position between milestones or claim a live spacecraft feed. Each milestone's date and description are real and independently published by JAXA and the cited peer-reviewed papers.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Hayabusa2 launch and arrive at Ryugu?
It launched from Tanegashima Space Center on 2014-12-03 and arrived at asteroid Ryugu on 2018-06-27.
How big is Ryugu?
Ryugu measures about 1,004 m across its equator and about 875 m pole-to-pole, giving it a diamond, "spinning-top" shape. It rotates about once every 7.63 hours.
How did Hayabusa2 create an artificial crater?
On 2019-04-05 its Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) released a copper projectile that struck the surface, creating a crater about 14.5 m in diameter - the first deliberate excavation of an asteroid for sampling.
Why sample the crater site a second time?
The second touchdown on 2019-07-11 collected sub-surface material that the SCI impact had freshly exposed - material never before exposed to space weathering, distinct from the first touchdown's surface sample.
How much material did Hayabusa2 bring back?
The sample-return capsule landed near Woomera, South Australia on 2020-12-06, delivering about 5.4 g of asteroid material for laboratory analysis.
Is the on-screen Ryugu shape and trajectory to scale?
No - Ryugu's body and the spacecraft's trajectory are procedural shapes for teaching purposes, not a precise shape model or a physically simulated flight path. Only the dates and figures cited in the facts panel are real published figures.
How is this different from the DART mission explorer?
DART deliberately impacted asteroid Dimorphos to test planetary defense and did not return samples. This page instead replays Hayabusa2's approach-touchdown-impactor-return timeline at Ryugu, which was built around sample collection.
Where do these figures come from?
JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission pages, plus the peer-reviewed papers Watanabe et al. 2019 (Science) and Yada et al. 2022 (Nature Astronomy).