Ryugu Eros

Hayabusa 2’s nano-landers will not be the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on an asteroid. That distinction goes to NASA’s NEAR-Shoemaker mission, which made a controlled touchdown on asteroid Eros in 2001 and unexpectedly continued beaming science data back to Earth.

But NEAR-Shoemaker did not return any asteroid images from the surface of Eros, leaving that “first” in space exploration up for grabs by MINERVA-II and MASCOT.

The Japanese-built MINERVA-II landers are based on a similar craft that flew with Japan’s Hayabusa mission to asteroid Itokawa, but that landing attempt was unsuccessful.

Hayabusa 2 is one of two sample return missions that are beginning their asteroid exploration campaigns this year. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to arrive at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3, culminating in its own touch-and-go sample grab in mid-2020.

Hayabusa 2 is set to depart the asteroid in late 2019, with return to Earth scheduled for December 2020 with a parachute-assisted landing of the mission’s sample carrier in Australia.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/09/06/hayabusa-2-team-sets-dates-for-asteroid-landings/