Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa (Falcon) has traveled 200 million miles to the asteroid 25143 Itokawa and is hovering about 15 miles above its surface. Hayabusa has a laser altimeter to measure surface heights and two spectrometers to analyze mineral compositions. The half-ton spacecraft’s mission is to land, take samples, and return to Earth. The grapefruit-sized Lander Minerva was released but floated into space. It was designed to hop along the surface and take color images with 3 cameras and record temperatures.