Asteroid probe ready to come home

JAPANESE spacecraft on an unprecedented mission to bring asteroid material back to Earth is starting for home despite showing signs of trouble earlier, an executive of Japan’s space agency, JAXA, said yesterday.

On Saturday, the Hayabusa probe apparently landed on the Itokawa asteroid and collected surface samples. After the landing, the probe hovered about three miles from the asteroid and appeared to be shaking, possibly due to a gas leak from a thruster, JAXA said.

The probe shut down all its engines on Saturday and switched to solar power while JAXA investigated the problem.