Hayabusa2 (literally speaking the peregrine falcon 2) is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese state space agency (JAXA). It is a successor to the Hayabusa mission, which returned asteroid samples for the first time in June 2010.Hayabusa2 was launched on 3 December 2014 and rendezvoused in space with near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018. 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 (UTC).
Its mission has now been extended through at least 2031, when it will rendezvous with the small, rapidly-rotating asteroid 1998 KY26.
Hayabusa2 carries multiple science payloads for remote sensing and sampling, and four small rovers to investigate the asteroid surface and analyze the environmental and geological context of the samples collected. Dr. Patrick Michel and Prof. Guy Libourel (both UCA, OCA and CNRS) are part of the scientific team.
