Wao! Hayabusa has landed !

It’s a scoop!

Shin-ya Matsuura just wrote an article in his blog that he received a press kit from JAXA stating Hayabusa has landed for 30 minutes during the last attempt of the touch down on 20th. His guess on the 20th was indeed right! The JAXA/ISAS team confirmed this news by analyzing the data downloaded from the spacecraft by yesterday. The impactor was not deployed somehow. He says he will update detail later.

[Addendum] According to asahi.com, Prof. Kawaguchi, project manager of Hayabusa said "It was the first probe ever to land and take off on the celestial body other than the Moon. It was not the way we expected, but we would like to celebrate it." Well, congratulations, professor!

[Addendum2] According to Mainichi, Prof. Kawaguchi also said, "The project team was so excited when they realized it was a landing. I hope this will set the course of our planetary exploration from now on."