A Long Hike Home for Hayabusa.

The article informs that Japanese space craft Hayabusa that recently visited an asteroid, due to continuing mechanical and communications problems would not make it back to Earth until 2010. According to scientists from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan, a part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the space craft may not be carrying any of the asteroid samples astronomers were hoping would shed light on conditions in the early universe. The Hayabusa team had previously announced it was confident the tiny spacecraft had picked up rock samples while briefly sitting on the surface of asteroid Itokawa.