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Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft, designed to collect a sample from an asteroid and return it to Earth, has lost the second of its three "reaction wheels".

These wheels help the probe maintain its "attitude", or orientation, in space without needlessly expending fuel by using thrusters to do the same job.

Hayabusa has now settled in a "home position" about 6.8km from its target, the asteroid Itokawa.

Hope it manages to fulfill is mission though, simply because its a pretty fascinating mission - land and collect samples from Asteroids to see how they may have been formed.
Of further interest is its propulsion method, which is an Ion propulsion engine system.

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