MASCOT Rover deployed from Hayabusa 2 onto Ryugu 2018

The massively successful Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hayabusa 2 deployed one of its four rovers, Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) onto the surface of asteroid Ryugu, October 3, 2018.  The German Aerospace Center (DLR) developed MASCOT in cooperation with National Centre for Space Studies in France.  It weights only about 21 lbs and is about 11.6"x10.8"x7.7".  It ran for about 16 hours on a non-rechargeable battery and completed its mission successfully.  

Three papers have been published discussing the results from MASCOT in Nature Astronomy, Science, and Journal of Geophysical Research.

Glücklich Geburtstag, cosmonaut Klaus Dietrich Flade!

Klaus-Dietrich Flade, born August 23, 1952 in Germany, visited the Mir space station in March 1992.  His mission started aboard Soyuz TM-14 on March 17 and returned aboard Soyuz TM-13 on March 25.

Discovery (STS-85) launched 1997

STS-85 crew:

Seated (L-R): Kent Rominger, Curtis Brown

Standing (L-R): Robert Curbeam, Stephen Robinson, Nancy Jan Davis, Bjarni Tryggvason

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-85) blasted off August 7, 1997 with the first Icelandic-born astronaut, Bjarni Tryggvason, payload specialist.  The rest of the crew consisted of Commander Curtis Brown, Pilot Kent Rominger, Nancy Jan Davis, Robert Curbeam, and Stephen Robinson.  Tryggvason was an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency. 

This was the fourth cooperative mission between the German Space Agency and NASA.  The crew returned to Earth August 19, a day later than scheduled due to fog at the Kennedy Space Center.

Hayabusa 2, Japanese space probe, arrived at asteroid Ryugu

Hayabusa 2, a Japanese space probe launched in December 2014, has arrived at the near-Earth object/asteroid Ryugu.  The probe will follow the asteroid for a few months, studying it to find possible landing sites for four small probes to touch down to explore the surface.

One of the probes, Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, or MASCOT, was developed by the German Aerospace Center and Centre National d'études Spatiales (CNES). 

Hayabusa 2 will study the asteroid until December 2019, after which it will return to Earth with samples from the asteroid in December 2020.

Columbia (STS-55) launched 1993

Seated (L-R): Terence Henricks,  Steven Nagel, Charles Precourt; 

Standing (L-R): Bernard Harris, Hans Schlegel, Jerry Ross, Ulrich Walter

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-55), launched April 26, 1993, carried the second reusable German Spacelab into orbit.  The first one flew on STS-61-A in October 1985.  Its crew consisted of Commander Steven Nagel, Pilot Terence T. Henricks, Jerry Ross, Charles Precourt, Bernard Harris, Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel (both from the German Aerospace Center [DLR]).

The crew conducted almost 90 experiments from over 11 countries, during the 10-day trip.

They returned to Earth May 6.