* Astronomy

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RE: HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) mission

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An image captured at 4:58 JST of Itokawa.
The shadow of the Hayabusa spacecraft is clearly seen.

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Current (5:40 JST) altitude of Hayabusa is approximately 90 meters.

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At the altitude of 40 m before the touch-down, Hayabusa will release
a target marker with 880,000 signatures from people all over the world.

Now some 288,488,640 kilometres from Earth, Hayabusa will attempting the first “soft” or touch-down landing to snatch a sample of Itokawa’s surface soils.

Itokawa's image captured at 3:22 JST. (18:22 GMT)

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Hayabusa has started it`s vertical decent from 400 m altitude at 3:30(JST), (18:30 GMT 19 November)

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As of 3:00 JST, (18:00 GMT) the altitude of Hayabusa is approximately 500 metres, and closing.

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Image captured at 2:07 JST

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As of 2:30 JST, 20 November, the altitude of Hayabusa is approximately 560 meters.

(17:30 GMT, 19 November)

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The Hayabusa Command room

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This is an image of the target marker that will be placed on Itokawa, and a thin aluminium plate which records 880 thousands people's name.