 "Hayabusa" was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.Hayabusa was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005.After arriving at Itokawa, "Hayabusa" studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history.