Hayabusa2 Executes 800‑metre Flyby of Asteroid Torifune, Testing Autonomous Navigation

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft performed a close‑range flyby of the near‑Earth asteroid Torifune on 5 July 2026, passing just 800 metres from the target at roughly 19 000 km/h. The maneuver captured high‑resolution images that revealed the asteroid to be a contact binary.

The pass was part of a test of a newly developed onboard autonomous navigation system, which allowed the mission team to shorten the approach and hand‑over phases from the originally planned tens of kilometres to under a kilometre. Engineers debated the risk for weeks before approving the trajectory, as the flyby pushes the probe beyond its original design margins. The success builds on Hayabusa2’s earlier sample‑return mission from asteroid Ryugu in 2020 and demonstrates technology for rapid detection and characterization of potentially hazardous objects.