Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

The landing site is in the Outback of South Australia.

The pristine asteroid material collected by a Japanese spacecraft last year will come down to Earth less than five months from now, if all goes according to plan.

Samples of the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) near-Earth asteroid Ryugu snagged by Japan's Hayabusa2 probe are scheduled to land in the South Australian Outback on Dec. 6 local time, officials of both nations' space agencies announced yesterday (July 14).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) "has applied for the Authorization of Return of Overseas Launched Space Object (AROLSO), and both agencies are currently in the process of confirming this. The application will be approved under the Australian Space Activities Act, which came into force in 1998," JAXA and Australian Space Agency officials said in a joint statement yesterday.

The landing site is in the Outback of South Australia.

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