Space Capsule to Land in Australia’s Outback With Samples From a Billion-Year-Old Asteroid

A Terrier Orion Mk70 rocket carrying a hypersonic air-breathing (scramjet) engine blasts off from the remote Woomera rocket range, some 500kms north of Adelaide, Oct. 30, 2001. STR/Getty Images

South Australia’s outback is set to make history as the landing pad for a Japanese space capsule containing samples from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.

A sample return capsule from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will touch down on December 6 in the Woomera prohibited area, about six hours north of Adelaide.