It was confirmed that the closest approach distance this June will be within 1 million
kilometers. Every week the ion engine aboard the spacecraft reduces the distance 150
thousand kilometers per week. It is 2.5 times as far as that to the moon. In about a month,
the distance will become shorter than that to the moon. Currently, the spacecraft is
at 1.3 Astronautical Unit (AU) from the Sun and at 0.3 AU from the Earth.

Fig.1: Closest distance to Earth when Hayabusa flies ballistically from the moment designated.

Fig.2: The plane is normal to the approach velocity to Earth, and the horizontal axis corresponds to a crossing line with the equatorial plane. Sun is in the left hand side. Plots show the points where Hayabusa flies through this plane.

Fig.3: Trajectories relative to Earth in inertial frame. The plane corresponds to the ecliptic plane.

Notes: Dates designated in the left figure do not indicate the return dates.