Hideo Itokawa

Hideo Itokawa (糸川 英夫, Itokawa Hideo, July 20, 1912 – February 21, 1999) was a pioneer of

The near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa was named in honor of Itokawa,^[4] and is notable as the target of the Hayabusa mission.

Biography

Born in

Itokawa became a full professor at his alma mater in 1948. In 1955, Itokawa worked on the Pencil Rocket for Japan's space program. He retired from his post at the university in 1967 and established an institute.

On 11 February 1970, a team formely led by him at the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science at the University of Tokyo succeeded in launching Japan's first satellite, Ohsumi, making the country the fourth nation in the world to have the capability to send objects into orbit with their own launch vehicles. The satellite was carried on a Lambda 4S rocket, a joint project by the Institute of Industrial Science at the university and Nissan.^[5]

Itokawa wrote 49 books, and was a best-selling author. Topics that Itokawa became interested in or took as a hobby, include such sports as

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