The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached another milestone this summer, a first for space agencies. On Sunday, July 5, the probe conducted the first successful laser-ranging experiment during a flyby of asteroid Torifune, the first exploration target of Hayabusa2' s Extended Mission. This latest milestone will advance the capabilities of JAXA and other space agencies as they pursue future missions involving near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and other deep-space objects. ...read more read less