Hayabusa successfully fired the second and largest of four engine firings designed to guide the asteroid-explorer in a narrow re-entry corridor toward Australia.

The probe, designed to capture soil samples, explored the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 but it is unclear whether it managed to grab any material; scientists will have to open the capsule to find out.

The probe is on track to land in the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) on June 13.

The Japanese Space Agency (Jaxa) announced the craft is now about 7,600,000 kilometres from earth.

At 40,000km from Earth, the Hayabusa will release its sample return capsule.

Shielding should protect the capsule from the high temperatures it will experience during re-entry.

Parachutes will then deploy to slow the capsule’s speed for its touchdown in the WPA.

Hayabusa - which means “Falcon” in Japanese - was launched from the Kagoshima Space Centre in Japan on May 9, 2003.

It arrived at Itokawa in September, 2005, returning astonishing images of the potato-shaped asteroid’s jagged terrain.

Even if Hayabusa failed to grab large samples at Itokawa, the capsule may still contain some residues from the asteroid which could be analysed in laboratories.

If successful, the $200 million mission would still complete the first round-trip voyage to and from an asteroid.