A JAPANESE spacecraft will land in Australia in June, bringing with it samples from an asteroid found 300 million kilometres from Earth.

The unmanned Hayabusa spacecraft, launched in May 2003, will become the first spacecraft to bring asteroid material to Earth when it lands in Woomera, South Australia, later this year.

Asteroid explorer... the Hayabusa Spacecraft. Credit:Akihiro Ikeshita

''This is the first sample of a solid solar system body brought back since the moon missions some 40 years ago,'' said Jonathan Nally, editor of spaceinfo.com.au. ''It's a tremendous achievement by the Japanese.''

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency said the 510-kilogram spacecraft made contact with the Itokawa asteroid in 2005 and has been making its return to Earth since then.