Editing Space exploration (section)

===Asteroids===
{{Main|Exploration of the asteroids}}
[[File:Dawn-image-070911.jpg|thumb|Asteroid [[4 Vesta]], imaged by the [[Dawn (spacecraft)|''Dawn'' spacecraft]] (2011)]]
Until the advent of [[Spaceflight|space travel]], objects in the [[asteroid belt]] were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes, their shapes and terrain remaining a mystery. Several asteroids have now been visited by probes, the first of which was ''[[Galileo (spacecraft)|Galileo]]'', which flew past two: [[951 Gaspra]] in 1991, followed by [[243 Ida]] in 1993. Both of these lay near enough to ''Galileo'''s planned trajectory to Jupiter that they could be visited at acceptable cost. The first landing on an asteroid was performed by the ''[[NEAR Shoemaker]]'' probe in 2000, following an orbital survey of the object, [[433 Eros]]. The dwarf planet [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] and the asteroid [[4 Vesta]], two of the three largest asteroids, were visited by NASA's [[Dawn (spacecraft)|''Dawn'' spacecraft]], launched in 2007.

''[[Hayabusa (spacecraft)|Hayabusa]]'' was a [[robotic spacecraft]] developed by the [[Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]] to [[Sample return mission|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. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid twice to collect samples. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 13 June 2010.