Posted for David Cyranoski

Launched in 2003, Japan’s Hayabusa was supposed to travel 2 billion kilometres and bring back samples from an asteroid. It would be a world’s first asteroid sample return mission, but in November 2005, following encouraging news that Hayabusa had landed on the asteroid (named Itokawa), JAXA officials expressed serious doubt over whether it was actually able to get any rocks (see: A shot in the dark?).

A loss of communication in December 2005 led to a three year delay of Hayabusa’s return, now scheduled for June 2010. But today (18:00 Japan time/9 am UK) JAXA announced that on November 4 its main engine had shut down (after a defect in the neutralizer led to a voltage burst).

It was one of four engines, and all have had problems. Two have been out of service for two years or more. JAXA is now confirming whether the third, which has been shut off after having similar problems with its neutralizer, might be able to save the mission.

Image: artist’s impression of Hayabusa near Itokawa / via Wikipedia