NASA and Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) have agreed to cooperate on the first mission to collect samples from the surface of an asteroid and rerum them to Earth for in-depth study. The MUSES C mission will be launched on a Japanese MV launch vehicle in July 2002 from Kagoshima Space Center, Japan, toward a touchdown on the asteroid 1989ML in September 2003. A NASA provided miniature rover will conduct in-situ measurements on the surface. The asteroid samples will be returned to Earth by MUSES C via a parachute borne recovery capsule in June 2006
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