... 19.09.2005 . ... To help find out, Japan 's JAXA space agency launched the Hayabusa mission to rendezvous with asteroid Itokawa . Last week, the small robotic Hayabusa spacecraft arrived at asteroid Itokawa and stationed itself only 20 kilometers away. ... Also in November, Hayabusa will fire pellets into asteroid Itokawa and collect some of the debris in a return capsule. In December, Hayabusa will fire its rockets toward Earth and drop the return capsule to Earth in 2007 June. ... November . ...