Hayabusa2 (Japanese: はやぶさ2, "Peregrine falcon 2") is an asteroid sample-return mission owned by the Japanese state space agency JAXA. It replaced the Hayabusa mission, which returned asteroid samples for the first time in June 2010.[1]
Hayabusa2 was launched on 3 December 2014 and rendezvoused in space with near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018.[2] It surveyed the asteroid for a year and a half and took samples. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and returned the samples to Earth on 5 December 2020.[3][4][5][6]