The control room at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) erupted with joy on Friday after its Hayabusa2 space probe successfully landed on the asteroid Ryugu to collect samples.
The landing represented a major step toward replicating the success of Hayabusa, which was the first-ever space probe to transport samples from an asteroid to Earth after its 2005 mission to the asteroid Itokawa.
More than 200 spectators watched Hayabusa2's landing at a public viewing event at the Sagamihara City Museum in Sagamihara, where a live stream of the JAXA control room was shown on a large screen at the museum entrance. The museum is located next to JAXA's Sagamihara Campus.
The spectators called out congratulations and broke into applause when JAXA announced at around 8 a.m. that the probe had landed on Ryugu, which is about 340 million kilometers from Earth.
Among the viewers was a 63-year-old part-time worker from Chuo Ward, Sagamihara, who was the first to arrive at the venue.
"I thought Japan had the excellent technology to make the landing possible. I want Hayabusa2 to safely return to Earth," he said.
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