Credit: 20th Century Fox
The saga behind the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa asteroid probe is headed for another landing, this time on the silver screen.
In fact, a trio of movies is on tap focused on the space probe’s seven year journey to asteroid Itokowa and its arduous space trek. Likened to a robotic Apollo 13 mission, controllers overcame many technical hurdles en route to the space rock and back to Earth.
Samples from the asteroid, in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, were returned to Earth in June 2010, parachuting into Australia via the spacecraft’s landing capsule.
The drama of the trouble-plagued probe is being showcased in the three new films – following an already released documentary film by Kadokawa Pictures Inc., titled Hayabusa Back to the Earth. That film opened in Japan last May.
According to Japanese media reports, one of the three films — Hayabusa — is set to appear this October from 20th Century Fox, not only in Japan but in the U.S. as well.
Next year, Hayabusa, Return From Distant Place and Welcome Back, Hayabusa are slated to premiere, issued by other film companies.
By Leonard David