Unmanned craft – about the size of a large refrigerator – plans to collect ground samples, some 300 million kilometres from Earth

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe has successfully landed on a distant asteroid where it hopes to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

Scientists in the control room observing the landing clapped and made “V” for victory signs.

[PPTD] July 11 at 10:51 JST: Gate 5 check. The state of the spacecraft is normal and the touchdown sequence was performed as scheduled. Project Manager Tsuda has declared that the 2nd touchdown was a success!

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