Japanese space lander apparently lost

Japan's agency suffered another glitch in its mission to collect surface samples from an asteroid and return to Earth when a can-sized robot lander apparently became lost in space while attempting a practice touch down.

The rehearsal landing followed an earlier attempt that was aborted due to mechanical trouble, but the space agency said it is still targeting actual landings on the potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa on Nov. 19 and Nov. 25.

The Hayabusa probe successfully released the Minerva surface-exploring robot on Saturday, but Minerva appeared to start drifting away from the asteroid's surface, according to a release from JAXA, Japan's space agency.

Minerva expected to land and hop around on the asteroid's surface collecting data with three small color cameras.

"Unfortunately, it appears Minerva did not recognize the surface," JAXA said.

Minerva still in radio contact with Hayabusa late on Saturday, and mission controllers were trying to find out more about its condition and location, JAXA said. Officials, however, expected the transmissions to give out soon.

"It is very disappointing that it did not work out nicely," JAXA official Junichiro Kawaguchi was quoted as saying. "We found out various things about the asteroid, so we will study the data and hope it will lead to the successful landing of Hayabusa."

Another on Saturday to collect surface data with laser altimeter was largely successful, the agency said.

JAXA Hayabusa, launched in May 2003, will be the world's first two-way trip to an asteroid. A NASA probe collected data for two weeks from the Manhattan-sized asteroid Eros in 2001, but did not return with samples.

Hayabusa until early next month before it must leave orbit and begin its 290 million kilometer journey back to Earth. It is expected to return to Earth and land in the Australian Outback in June 2007.

The asteroid is named after Hideo Itokawa, the father of rocket science in Japan.