POST-FLIGHT ANALYSIS OF HAYABUSA; ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN CAPSULE

HAYABUSA(MUSES-C); an asteroid explorer returned to the earth after the 7 years of lengthy and troubled voyage, and its capsule reenters into the Earth's atmosphere. It performed a safe reentry flight and recovery. For the design of the capsule, many considerations were made clue to its higher entry velocity and higher aerodynamic heating than those of normal reentry from earth orbit. Taking into account the required functions throughout the orbital flight, reentry flight, and descent/recovery phase, the capsule was deigned, tested, manufactured and flight demonstrated finally. The paper presents the concept of the design and qualification approach of the small space capsule of the asteroid sample and return mission. And presented are how the reentry flight was performed and a brief overview of the post flight analysis primarily for these design validation purposes and for the better understanding of the flight results.