Japanese fridge-sized probe flies near asteroid to test planet defence

A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks.

The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth.

The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 160-metre-wide Dimorphos asteroid in 2022, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock.

Moving at a speed of more than 18,000 kilometres (11,185 miles) per hour, Hayabusa2 was not intended to collide with Torifune.

Instead, scientists wanted to assess whether they could precisely control the trajectory of the probe, should it ever need to perform a deflection.

“At 6.35pm (0935 GMT) … Hayabusa2 conducted a fly-by of Torifune and the spacecraft is working normally,” a JAXA spokeswoman said, declining to give her name.